


Favour

by Summer_Dusk



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, It's called diplomacy, Look it Up, Mostly shenanigans while the gameplot happens somewhere in the background, Mòrag tries to be nice, Obviously it backfires, Typical spoilers for that one event in Indol and Elpys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-11
Updated: 2018-10-11
Packaged: 2019-07-29 13:43:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 30,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16265396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Summer_Dusk/pseuds/Summer_Dusk
Summary: "Mòrag knew that Nia would not forgive her so easily for taking her captive, and she certainly did not blame her for it, but she was determined to make efforts into building a good camaraderie at least."It all started with the offer of buying Nia that bear carving - and it ends in...?





	1. Not Your Strongest Suit

**Author's Note:**

> I have to hand in my diploma thesis on Oct 22nd so OBVIOUSLY the natural thing to do is writing and uploading 30k worth of fic >,> (Okay 16k, the other half was written a bit earlier this year...)
> 
> There is a lot of history to "Favour", seeing how I started it back in May already, but I won't go into detail here because it would give away one of the later chapters (the one which is conveniently named after this story~).
> 
> This was originally intended as a collection of smaller scenes and it is actually a oneshot in my files, but I figure 30k is too much to read all at once, so I divided the story into chapters which mostly encompass a scene or two. Some scenes are very short (but all the more sweet~) and so are a lot of the chapters~
> 
> Also a super big thank you to Ikasury, whom I always threw my fic at whenever I needed some motivation to continue XD Your comments always help~

The shelves were filled to the brim with little trinkets: punk dolls, copper ephem statues, music boxes and many, many more.  
A golden gaze watched curiously between them until it came to a halt when it discovered the bear carvings. There was a blink and after a moment of consideration Nia took one of the carvings from the shelf into her hands, a delighted smile on her lips now.

“The tails of Ardainian bear carvings are just the cutest!” she exclaimed happily as she turned to Rex and Mythra next to her.  
  
“Um… yeah, they are,” the boy agreed while he scratched the back of his head, a bit taken aback at the happy smile and the expression of pure delight in the voice of someone usually blunt and rowdy. “Though I never got why girls make such a fuss about cute stuff…”

Mythra took the carving from Nia’s hands in order to take a better look. She stared at it for a long, long while until she finally put it back into Nia’s hands with a dismissive side glance. “I-it’s alright…”

Of course, the little stutter did not go by unnoticed by Nia. She grinned slyly. “It’s more than just alright and you know it.”

At this, Mythra only crossed her arms and turned away. “Shut up,” she only said and pretended to take a very close look at one of the paintings hanging on the wall.

Tora and Poppi on the other hand where occupied with the small music boxes. Pretty little pieces they were, their casing made out of shells as far as the Noppon driver could tell. Poppi was fascinated with the gleaming pearl-white coloured exterior and had been staring at it for quite some time now.

“Poppi like music box?” Tora asked.

The artificial blade nodded. “It very pretty,” she answered. “Why is this called music box?”

A smile lit up on Tora’s face. “Riiight, Poppi’s programming doesn’t include knowledge about music.” Happy to show his blade something new, he pointed at the ratchet lever sticking out of the casing with one of his wings. “If Poppi spin lever here slowly, it will make pretty sound!”

Poppi didn’t need to be told twice. She did as her masterpon said, taking utmost care to not break the small lever off and when the first note sounded her eyes widened, fascinated and completely taken in by this new discovery. She spun the lever until the music started to loop. “What melody is this, masterpon?”

The Nopon put one of his wings beneath his chin while he thought about it. “Tora not familiar enough with music to tell.”

“That is an Ardainian lullaby,” a voice behind him said.

Tora turned around and saw Mòrag standing above him, her hands resting behind her back.

He made a little surprise jump, but calmed down immediately as he remembered that Mòrag was part of the team now. After the happenings in the old factory and the sudden appearance of Fan la Norne things had taken a surprising twist and while Tora was not sure if he got all the details right, there had been talks about Mòrag wanting to tag along as representative of Mor Ardain in order to meet the Praetor – or something like that. He had been too overwhelmed by his father’s survival to really pay attention.

Maybe she wanted to spy on them? Nia at least had not seemed too thrilled by the aspect of the Flamebringer accompanying them, but Rex, being Rex, had tried to convince her that they’d benefit from Mòrag’s alliance. Problem was, he was not exactly a great convincer so Nia had kept her reservations about the whole thing.

Azurda’s solution to this was that the group go shopping for supplies with their new team member, hoping that this would break the ice and let them bond a bit. They still had time before they’d board the titan ship towards Leftheria tomorrow morning after all.

“What is name of lullaby?” Poppi asked, completely unfazed, as opposed to her masterpon.

“It is called ‘All through the night’,” Mòrag answered matter-of-factly.

“Meh, can Mòrag sing?” Tora asked curiously. “It pretty song?”

The suggestion of Mòrag singing brought a smile to Brighid’s face which she successfully hid beneath one of her hands.

“I will not sing,” Mòrag stated brusquely. “However, the text is quite beautiful in my opinion.”

“Poppi want to know.”

It surprised Mòrag to see so much emotion in the artificial blade’s eyes. Her gaze was sincere and she looked so much like a child experiencing something new for the very first time.

“I will write it down for you when I have some time,” she answered eventually. Poppi’s eyes lit up when she heard that and Mòrag had to admit that she had judged them quite wrongly during their first meeting.

She turned her light brown gaze towards the other party members. Nia was still going on about the bear carving, while the boy tried to find suitable responses. The Aegis herself was sulkily occupied with the paintings. This group was certainly a paramount example of “don’t judge a book by its cover”.

Her eyes lingered on Nia for a little longer. Nia did not trust her at all and had no problems openly admitting that to anyone who cared to listen. It would certainly not do their alliance any good if this kept up, trust was very important when fighting together after all. Mòrag knew that Nia would not forgive her so easily for taking her captive, and she certainly did not blame her for it, but she was determined to make efforts into building a good camaraderie at least.

She approached Nia, an awfully lot of purpose in the three steps she made.

Nia took immediate notice of the Ardainian coming closer. Her smile turned into an unfriendly frown.

“I see you took a liking to the bear carvings,” Mòrag noticed.

For some reason Nia found it necessary to hide the figure behind her back. “Yeah, maybe… what’s it to you?”

This would definitely be a tough nut to crack. “Allow me to buy it for you.”

“W-what?!” Nia made a little jump back, and almost landed on the shelf behind her. She stared incredulously at the other woman, her ears twitching a bit, as if they hadn’t heard right. “Why?”

Mòrag needed a moment to come up with an answer. “Considering our new alliance I thought it for the best if we could… improve the relationship between Mor Ardain and Gormott.”

Nia snorted when she heard that. “Maybe you should’ve thought about that _before_ you took me captive and threatened to execute me.”

That hit a nerve. “I never meant to execute you.”

“Yeah, I know: you just used me as a decoy so that you could catch Rex and Pyra, but does that really make you look any better?” Regaining her composure again Nia gazed at her with narrow eyes.

“Well…” Behind her back, Mòrag clenched her hands together a little bit too tightly. “One would think that we are even in regards to that, seeing how you dropped a water tower on me to make an escape.”

There was a mischievous glint in Nia’s eyes, an underlying enjoyment when she recalled the memory. “Still, I didn’t know at the time that you were never gonna go through with that plan of yours,” she eventually answered. “I was put through _great_ emotional distress and that’s not something a water tower or a wooden bear can fix.”

There was something in her voice that made Mòrag doubt the sincerity of her words. “So you are implying that we are at a stalemate here and that I cannot do anything to make this up to you?”

Nia put the bear back on the shelf. “Yup.” She turned to Mòrag and patted her on the shoulder, trying to smile sympathetically but instead she ended up looking smug. “It’s okay, though. I will treat you in battle just like everyone else. My performance won’t suffer from this, so you don’t have to worry about a thing. I just don’t like and trust you, it happens,” she said nonchalantly and strode past the Special Inquisitor and out of the shop.

“It seems like diplomacy is not your strongest suit,” Brighid commented, after watching the whole scene quietly in the background.

Mòrag’s eyebrow twitched in response. She watched after Nia with a thoughtful expression and then turned back to the shelf where the Gormotti had put the bear back. “Hm…”

“Oi, and if you even _think_ of buying me that thing,” Nia was back at the shop entrance now. “I swear I’m just gonna throw it away! I won’t accept your bribes!”

Her shout made all the other party members and the shopkeeper look at Nia, but she didn’t care and left quickly again. Dromarch had the decency to throw an apologetic glance towards the Special Inquisitor and her blade before he followed his driver.

Mòrag’s hands were clutched even tighter than before. _Bribe_? That word was an insult, not only to her but also to all she represented.

No, she couldn’t possibly let this rest now.

 


	2. To Win a War...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for a different approach...

Later that day the group decided to eat dinner together at one of the restaurants in the shopping district. It was the last thing on the schedule before each of the respective parties would return to their quarters for some last preparations before they would meet up by their ship in the morning.

“So you’ve been working as a salvager for five years, even though you are so young?” Fan la Norne was fascinated by Rex’s background. She had been asking him various things about his upbringing and salvaging and how it was for a young boy like him to live alone.

Rex tried his best to answer as politely as possible. It was clear that he wasn’t used to the open attention Fan paid to him and whenever she smiled at him, he would falter for a moment and stutter.  
“Well, my home village is quite small, all children learn swimming and diving very early on…”

Tora was listening to him as intensely as Fan, Mythra’s eyes had not moved from Fan for the duration of the whole dinner, apparently in deep thought, Poppi, Brighid and Dromarch had started a conversation on their own about music and its purpose and Nia had alternated between staring daggers at Mòrag or openly ignoring her in favour for her food. Mòrag on the other hand behaved pretty much like herself, listening intently to the conversations around her and offering her own thoughts whenever an appropriate opportunity presented itself.

“Did you know that the Praetor used to salvage too?” Fan asked while eating her desert, steamed milk brioche.

“Really?” Rex’s eyes widened when he heard that. “I hope I get talk with him about that.”

Fan nodded with a smile. “I’m sure the opportunity will arise.”

The conversation continued on until at some point Nia yawned loudly. “Guys, I don’t wanna interrupt, but it’s late and we have to be at the port early tomorrow…” she reminded everyone.

Rex turned to her with a frown. “Oh… I guess you are right.”

Tora’s wing was stretched up in the air already. “Waiter! Tora and friends want bill!”

“Of course,” a young woman replied and took out her notepad. “Would you like separate checks?”

“Oh, hm…” Rex looked towards Nia and Tora. They usually paid for group expenses with the money they had earned as such, but with their additional guests, he wondered if it would be all right with the two of them if he invited Mòrag and the other two blades.

“No need to, I will pay the bill,” Mòrag offered.

Rex, Nia and Tora stared at her with wide eyes.  
“No, you can’t, you and Brighid are only two people and our group is so much bigger… Let _us_ pay.”  
“What?!”  
“Is friend Mòrag rich??”

Mórag’s lips curved into a smile. “Don’t worry about the money, my pay rate is not too bad if I dare say so.”

“Yeah, but still… It was us who invited you to tag along, so we should pay,” Rex replied with a frown.

Mòrag shook her head. “Just see it as a favour for all the help you offered these days.” Her eyes wandered slowly to Nia and there was a mischievous glint in her gaze now. “I’m sure I can’t make up for the _emotional distress_ the ordeal with Torna caused, but…”

“Oh, no, it’s quite alright!” Rex raised his hands to wave the implication away. “If you want to return the favour of us helping you, then we can’t argue with that.”

Nia just stared aghast at the Special Inquisitor, getting full well the intention behind her choice of words and that cocky smirk of hers.  
“Oi, Rex do you want us to be indebted to that woman?”, she asked him while slapping her flat hands on the table, her question almost a shout.

“I-indebted? If anything, we would be even, right?” the boy answered confused.

Of course he didn’t get it. She glared at him. “Do what you want, I’m gonna pay for my own food.”

“N-Nia?”

“My lady?” Dromarch interrupted carefully.

She snapped back at him. “What?” she hissed.

The tiger frowned while his tail moved nervously back and forth. “It seems like Lady Mòrag already paid.”

“What?!” And true enough, the waitress had already long left their table, leaving only the paid tab behind.

Mòrag seemed satisfied with herself when she put the piece of paper away. “We shall take our leave now,” she announced and stood up, Brighid following suit. “If you would do us the honour, Miss la Norne,” she said to the blade with a polite bow.

Fan nodded and also stood up. She looked at the seated group of friends and bowed with a little smile. “Thank you so much, I will see you tomorrow.”

“G-goodnight…” There wasn’t really much to be said at this point. At least, from Rex’s and Tora’s perspective.

Nia on the other hand had a score to settle.

 

* * *

 

“You think you can outwit me by dragging Rex and the others into this?!”

The first thing Nia had done as soon as the titan airship had gone aloft was to barge into Mòrag’s room and slam a small pouch filled with coins on her desk.

While Brighid had seemed ready to burn her for the grave offense of entering without knocking, Mòrag in general was calm as always. In fact, she did not even look up from the paperwork she had been processing on that very same desk.

“I don’t know what you are referring to,” the Ardainian only said.

Nia narrowed her eyes. “You know bloody well what I mean,” she replied and turned on her heels and left, closing the door behind herself with a loud bang.

Brighid cocked her head a little. “Oh, my, she is quite stubborn.”

Mòrag put her pen aside and held the little pouch on eye level. “That she is,” she agreed. After Nia’s initial reaction she had expected something like this, but she didn’t worry about it, because sometimes losing a battle was necessary to win the war.


	3. Secret Gift

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group arrives in Leftheria and when they arrive at Baldotas, filled with pools of water, they decide to take a short break...

Her first sight of Leftheria had left Nia unimpressed. Rigitte Harbor lay on a very small isle that had nothing much to offer, except white sand and a few patches of grass. They had started their hike towards the next island via a very steep street, which was really actually a tentacle that connected one small titan to the other. It was easy to forget though since the connection was covered with white sand.

“Ugh, the way’s so steep,” she complained while every step she made cost her way more effort than what she deemed necessary.

The temperature was warm, something which Nia usually always welcomed – except when hiking. A breeze wafted from the cloud sea towards them which brought some relief at least.

“That’s not so much different from the giant roots in Gormott though?” Rex replied thoughtfully.

“First: we don’t _have_ to walk on them to get somewhere and second, they aren’t as steep as _this_ ,” Nia gestured at the road around them. “Not very impressed with your home so far.”

At this Rex laughed a little. “You’ve barely seen anything yet.”

“Yeah, but isn’t Leftheria just small titan after small titan anyway?” Nia just shrugged. “Can’t imagine much variety from what we’ve already seen.”

Rex smirked a little wider and refrained from commenting that. He just walked ahead to the end of the road. “Welcome to Baldotas Isle!” he announced and gestured towards the territory in front of him.

Nia couldn’t understand his excitement. “What are you going on abou –“ She stopped dead in her tracks when the area revealed itself in front of her.

The first thing that Nia noticed were the pools filled with turquoise water. There was quite a number of them, a big one right in the middle of the island and smaller ones around it, giving the whole geography a bit of symmetry. The ground was covered with white sand and tall dry grass grew on it, and what flowers she could see had small, but plenty and colourful red and pink blossoms.

Her eyes widened when she spotted a camill in the distance, blue and green fur covered its body while its feathery tail was orange, red and green. The colours of the place were bright and diverse, especially when she looked at the wildlife.  
It was very pretty, Nia had to admit.

Rix grinned at her. “Hehe, caught you off guard, didn’t it?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Yeah, yeah, it’s alright…” she waved whatever implications he threw at her away.

“Blue and green water look refreshing!” Tora moved his wings excitedly up and down. “Rex-Rex, how about short break at water?”

“Already? We’ve been barely walking for an hour…” the boy frowned.

He looked towards Nia, who didn’t seem to oppose the idea, and then towards Mòrag and Fan la Norne.

“I agree it is a bit too early for a rest,” Mòrag said.

Fan on the other hand had her gaze set on the pools of water. Her eyes were shining brightly, like those of a little girl who had just gotten a new toy or eaten her favourite dessert.

“What do you think, Fan?” he asked her, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

“The hike just now was quite steep,” Fan answered. “I think we should rest here and postpone the next break.”

Rex looked towards the others again. “What do you guys think?”

“Tora think great idea!” the Nopon exclaimed and ran off towards the water.

“Masterpon, wait!” Poppi only said before she chased after him.

“Oi, wait!” Nia yelled, but it was no use: Tora was dead set on getting into the water. She didn’t blame him though. It was warm and her body felt way too hot thanks to all that hiking so far. She looked back towards the rest of her party. “We settled then?”

Rex only shrugged and looked towards Mòrag and Fan.  
Mòrag in turn looked at Rex and Nia until she finally yielded with a sigh. “I’m sure a short rest won’t hurt,” she eventually agreed.

When the Special Inquisitor herself gave the okay, Rex’s, Nia’s and Fan’s last inhibitions disappeared and they made their way towards the bodies of water too. They did not exactly run, no, because obviously they weren’t little children looking for an opportunity to splash in the cool and colourful water.

“Rex, wait!” Mythra called after him. “Ugh, why are you such a child?” She looked back towards Mòrag, Brighid and Dromarch and gave them a look none of them could quite read, and went after her driver.

Tora was already floating on top of the shallow pools when the rest of the group arrived, while Poppi sat by the shore and watched him.

Rex had no qualms jumping into the water, no surprise really, since he was always wearing that salvager suit of his all the time. Nia laughed when the water reached barely to his knees. She approached and dipped her hand into the crystal clear liquid. “Ah…” So nice and cool. She splashed some water into her face and was happy for the refreshment it brought. Part of her was tempted to just take off her suit and dip in quickly…  
But she couldn’t do that.  
Her hands subconsciously moved towards her chest and she sighed.

She saw Fan pull up her pants and getting rid of her sandals and cocked her head. Now _that_ was an idea. Nia took off her boots and rolled up her suit as much as she could, exposing only her shins, and then jumped into the water right next to Rex and Tora.

“Hey, watch out!” Rex shouted while he held his arms up to shield his face from the splashing water.

“Oh, as if that would actually annoy you, mister salvager,” Nia only said cheekily and just splashed another wave towards him.

Mòrag, Brighid and Dromarch watched their companions as they slowly made their way towards the pools of water.

“Quite the lively bunch,” Mòrag commented as she watched Nia and Rex ganging up on Tora and dousing him, while Fan tried unsuccessfully to supress laughing at the Nopon struggling to stand up in the water to get his revenge.

Dromarch chuckled amusedly. “Despite everything, they are still children at heart.”

Brighid smiled at him. “You sound like a parent.”

The white tiger’s blue eyes followed the movements of his Gormotti driver and he smiled softly. “There is nothing wrong with that, don’t you agree?”

Brighid’s smile grew amused and she looked towards her own driver, who had gone ahead and now walked in a leisurely pace along the sandy shore. Having apparently spotted something, she squatted down and picked it up. When she held it against the sky to get a better look, Brighid saw that it was a pretty nautilus seashell, shimmering colourfully in the sun light.

“I do,” she only said and sat down beneath a nearby tree, away from the water. Dromarch decided to lie down next to her in the shadows to keep her company and avoid the harsh sunlight.

The group stayed at Baldotas for far longer than any of them realized. Only when Rex noticed that the afternoon sun slowly started to make its way downward and that it would get dark in a few hours, he stopped in his tracks and notified the group that it would be the best if they tried to make some progress before setting up camp.

Nia, Tora and Fan had looked equally surprised. They had not noticed how fast the time had passed.

“Well, it was fun while it lasted,” Nia commented and walked up to the spot she had left her boots at. “Hm?” She blinked and bent down to pick up a seashell which someone had left on top of her footwear. It was a very pretty one, with regular patterns on a pearl-white background. It shimmered beautifully in the afternoon sunlight.

Nia blushed. Someone had obviously left it on her boots as some kind of present – now the question was: who?

She looked towards Rex and Tora. No, she had been with them all the time, there had been no opportunity for them to do this unnoticed. The same went for Fan, that, and the blade had no reason whatsoever to do this.

Nia’s golden gaze wandered towards Poppi who had made flower crowns with Mythra’s advice. Those two seemed to have been equally busy the whole time, and again, Nia could not think of a reason why they would have done that anyway. Except if they had done something like this for everyone? She watched her friends gather at the tree Mòrag, Brighid, Dromarch, Poppi and Mythra sat beneath, but none of their behaviour indicated anything like that.

Dromarch would sometimes get her a little trinket, especially on days she had felt sad and hopeless, but he was still napping beneath the tree, while Brighid leaned on him, reading a book. Nia’s eyes narrowed. Her blade seemed to get along awfully well with the blade of that Flamebringer woman. She looked towards Mòrag, who leaned against the tree and was talking to Rex about how they should proceed.

Nia’s eyes were slits now. Was she the culprit? Was that another attempt to get on her good side? If so, then Nia should get rid of the shell.

She looked at the little gift and clenched her fingers around it, ready to chuck it into the water. She raised her arm and noticed that if she held it in a certain angle against the light, it shimmered in rainbow colours...

It was admittedly very pretty.

“Ugh.” She sulkily put the shell inside the pouch she wore around her hip. Throwing it away would be a waste. And besides, she had no real proof that it had been Mòrag who put it on her belongings. And even if it was, she couldn’t really count it as bribe, right? After all it was a mere shell someone had picked up from the ground.

Nia put on her boots and walked up to her friends with somewhat of a sour expression and red cheeks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was especially fun to write! Mòrag can be such a smooth operator~


	4. Benefit of the Doubt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a unique monster messes with the group's plan of camping~

They continued their way under Rex’s guidance and it was not before long until the sun had set and night had fallen over Leftheria. They reached Daram Isle, another titan similar to Baldotas, but much smaller in size and with large scales growing out of its back, which limited their view on the territory and made it somewhat of a natural maze.

“I think we should set up camp for the night here,” Rex suggested. “After Daram comes the cloudway, which is very narrow and makes for easy encounters with monsters,” he explained. “If we don’t rest now we won’t be able until much, much later and I don’t think anyone is really up for that.”

The rest of the group agreed or just nodded and they began to set up camp. Nia had volunteered to look for firewood or something that burned in a similar manner, while Pyra overlooked their provisions and thought about what she could cook with them.

Mòrag was the first one to notice a certain oddity: “There are no animals here…”

Rex perked up when he heard that and looked around. “That’s strange,” he admitted. “Every island is usually bustling with life, just like we saw back at Baldotas.”

Mòrag placed her hand upon her swords when she heard that. “There aren’t many reasons why this place would be empty then,” she thought aloud.

“What do you mea –“ Before Rex could finish his question, they heard a yell:

“You bloody cur!!”

Dromarch was immediately on his feet again. “My lady!” he shouted and ran towards the direction Nia’s voice had come from.

What he found was a Jagron of towering size, its legs alone were already twice the size of his driver.

Nia was defending herself with her Twin Rings, holding them up in front of her, so that the monster’s claws would hit her weapon instead of her body. She kept an eye on the beast at all times and Dromarch’s blue eyes widened when he realized that the Jagron was not alone. He saw a common blade raising his Megalance at Nia and the tiger blade dove in between the two of them before Nia realized what had been going on. The lance hit Dromarch and he howled from the pain.

“Dromarch!” the Gormotti driver screamed. With her attention diverted, the Jagron hit her with his massive paw and sent her flying several yards back. She landed painfully on her back and a muffled yelp escaped her as the air was pressed out of her lungs. Her vision blurred for a moment, but she tried and struggled to get up again.

“Nia!” Rex screamed and soon thereafter he and the rest of the party appeared behind one of the large stone scales.

The sight of the beast made everyone stop in their tracks for a moment.  
“W-what is this thing?” Pyra asked.  
“Has blade too!” Tora noticed.

Mòrag on the other hand had assessed the situation in these few moments and when she saw the Jagron raising his claw against their now defenceless teammate she sprang into action without a moment’s hesitation. With her Whipswords crossed in front of her she met the monster’s claws.

Nia had barely managed to sit up, but when she saw Mòrag jump in front of her and how she held herself in place against the claws of the beast, instead of being thrown away, just like Nia had been mere moments ago, the Gormotti had to admit that she was impressed.  
 _S-so cool…_

The way the Ardainian woman stood in front of her, unfazed and unwavering, taking a towering Jagron on as if it was nothing…   
When she caught herself thinking something inappropiate she tried to shake it off.

Mòrag managed to deflect the claws and to hit the beast in the eye, angering it further in the process. It was then when Tora and Rex appeared next to her and started attacking the beast too.

When Tora had caught its attention, Mòrag turned back to Nia and offered her a hand. “Can you stand?”

The Gormotti’s golden eyes stared widely at her. She needed a few seconds to snap out of her admiration and when she did she just huffed and stood up on her own. “Y-yeah, I’m fine…” she said dismissively and averted her eyes sideways.

Mòrag watched her for a few long moments, and only when Dromarch called after his lady was their attention drawn back to the battle.

Nia summoned the Twin Rings into her hands again and looked into the eyes of the other woman. They gave each other a nod and got into their positions to aid their friends and face the enemy once again.

~

Later that night the group sat together by the campfire Pyra had made and ate and talked in a relaxed atmosphere, now that the isle was finally free of its threat.

Nia was not among them, instead she had chosen to sit a bit further away and watch them. It seemed that the battle had brought Mòrag closer to her new teammates. She and Rex were talking about the monster from before, Tora had joined them, asking Mòrag questions about battling properly, despite being wary of her back in Alba Cavanich.

 _Damn it_ , Nia just thought. While she could dismiss a seashell or repay a tab paid behind her back, she could not overlook Mòrag saving her ass in battle. As much as Nia didn’t want to admit it, she owed the Special Inquisitor something for that.

She took the shell out of her pouch and watched it absentmindedly. She had at first thought that Mòrag had wanted to curry favour with her and the others, especially with her complaisant behaviour back in Mor Ardain, but now Nia had to admit that she _may_ have pegged her wrong. Mòrag had stood up in front of her without hesitation, crucial moments before any of the others had been able to react. Even though Nia had been so rude to her… Maybe she should give the other woman the benefit of the doubt and a chance to get along.

“My lady, what are you doing here all alone?” Dromarch’s voice suddenly asked beside her.

She startled, and the shell flew out of her hand, but before it could fall on the ground she caught it mid-air with both her hands and scrambled to put it back before Dromarch could properly see it. “Nothing!” she answered and stared angrily at him. For some reason her cheeks had turned red.

 


	5. Diplomacy at its Finest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nia tries to be nice for once... and Mòrag makes sure to make use of that.

They arrived in Fonsett the next day.

Rex had been immediately greeted by a bunch of kids and the villagers and had been caught up in talking to them. The group had encouraged him to catch up with his friends and thus they had dispersed until Rex felt ready to move on.

Mòrag stood by the well, watching nearby children and villagers go about their business. The village lay amidst nature and was very peaceful. It reminded Mòrag of the place in Gormott she had spent most of her childhood at.

She felt someone approach her. Mòrag turned her head and saw Nia, who immediately looked away and pretended to be very interested in the notice board next to the well.  
The Special Inquisitor suppressed a smile. “Hello, Nia,” she greeted her.

The Gormotti’s ears twitched and she turned to face Mòrag. “Hey,” she replied somewhat uneasily.

“How do you like the village?” Mòrag inquired to get a conversation started.

Nia raised an eyebrow at the small talk attempt, but eventually she just crossed her arms and huffed. “It’s boring and there is nothing here. No surprise Rex became a salvager!”

The reply made the Special Inquisitor chuckle. “You have a point. Personally, I think this place makes for a nice change of pace.”

“Huh, does it now…” Nia mumbled while she gave a sideways glance towards her. “Guess your work doesn’t usually bring you to quiet places.”

“I’m afraid not,” Mòrag confirmed.

“Hm,” Nia only made and lowered her gaze. She stayed silent for a bit, but it was obvious from her expression that she had still something on her mind. Mòrag waited for her to speak.

“Thanks for helping me out when we fought that Jagron,” Nia then mumbled. “If you hadn’t protected me while I was down it probably would have sliced my leg off or something…”

Mòrag seemed surprised at first, but she gave Nia a soft smile eventually. “Don’t mention it. I’m just fulfilling my role in battle.”

“Yeah, I guess…” Nia awkwardly scratched her cheek. “Still, um… I found this by the beach and thought you may like it.” She rummaged in her pouch and then she took Mòrag’s hand and placed something in it. “You know, just a little thanks.”

Mòrag raised an eyebrow and held the little gift up to eye-level. It was a heart-shaped stone.

“I – I found it that way. It’s really rare to find stones with distinct shapes,” Nia explained. “Thought it would make a nice counterpart to that shell…”

The stone was not perfectly symmetrical, since it was left in its natural state, but more than enough to make the shape out.  Its surface was smooth and mostly grey with a few stripes and spots of white and red. Certainly a special find.  
Mòrag found herself smiling. “Thank you, Nia. I will make sure to treasure it.” It seemed like Nia had finally warmed up to her.

Nia blushed. “D-don’t get this wrong, okay?” she said. “This is just a thank you for helping me out. Not me accepting your shell and returning the gift with something of my own. And _certainly_ not me feeling bad for being such an arse to you these days!”

“Obviously,” Mòrag only said and hoped that she did not look too smug. Nia had just started being nice to her, she shouldn’t blow it with any snide comment… “So you liked the seashell I found at Baldotas?”

Nia just glared at her. “What did I _just_ say?!” she yelled angrily, while her cheeks turned red.

“That you are certainly not feeling bad for your behaviour and that you did not accept the shell,” Mòrag repeated matter-of-factly while she put the heart-shaped stone in one of her pockets.

For a split second, Nia was at a loss for words, because the question had been rhetorical.

The Special Inquisitor straightened her posture. “And you said all this with a voice and an expression that make me believe the opposite,” she added.

Nia’s expression went from dumbfounded to angry in the split of a second. “You just shut it or I’ll wipe that smirk off your face!” she threatened Mòrag.

Mòrag hadn’t even noticed that she was grinning now. Before she could reply anything to Nia’s words, the Gormotti turned around and left.

Brighid saw the agitated Gormotti on her way back to meet up with Mòrag. She raised an eyebrow, wondering if another of her driver’s attempts to befriend Nia had gone awry. Considering how hard Nia shut the door to Corinne’s house behind her, Brighid would have guessed so.

She was surprised to find her driver smiling. 

~

The day in Fonsett dragged on. Corinne had cooked a nice meal for the group and then suggested they make themselves comfortable, maybe nap a bit and enjoy this peaceful afternoon. They had accepted the offer gratefully and so most of the party rested at her house while Rex was still out catching up with his friends.

Nia heard the giggling before she opened her eyes from her nap. She frowned and huddled deeper into Dromarch’s fur.

“Nia, wakey-wakey,” Tora called her.

The Gormotti sighed and drowsily opened her eyes. “What’s with the fuss? Are we leaving?” Her sleepy gaze wandered around the kitchen and she saw Tora, Poppi, Pyra and Brighid.

“Preparations have been made, my lady,” Dromarch’s deep voice confirmed next to her.

Nia yawned heartily and stretched her arms. “Alright, alright…” She heard another snort, coming from Pyra’s direction, and blinked. “What’s so funny?” she asked confused as she stood up.

“N-nothing…” Pyra answered and tried to supress another giggle.

Nia glared at her and then looked down on herself. Did she stain her suit somehow? Was there something on her face? She tried to subtly check whether she had drooled in her sleep by running the back of her hand across her mouth. Nope, nothing. Still, the amused stares and giggles persisted.

It was then when Corinne came out from one of the other rooms. When she saw Nia, she gasped – but not because she was surprised, no.  
“Oh, you look so adorable, dear!” she exclaimed delightedly. “Those flowers are a really great look on you!”

Nia raised an eyebrow. “Flowers…?” She carefully patted her head. Suddenly, her eyes went wide and she rushed into the bedroom where Corinne had come from and stared into the mirror.

Her hair was over and over adorned with an abundance of flowers, up to a point where one couldn't make her original hair colour out. It looked ridiculous. Nia hissed at the reflection, knowing exactly who the culprit was.

She stomped into the kitchen again.

Of course Mòrag wasn’t there.  
“Where. Is. She?” Nia asked Brighid, pausing between each word to emphasize her anger.

There was another snort from Tora and Pyra. Brighid smirked behind one of her hands. “She went for a walk after lunch.”

“She is so gonna get it, I swear…!” Nia was about leave, when Pyra’s voice chimed up behind her: “You may wanna get the flowers off first…”

The Gormotti stopped in her tracks. Yes, she probably should do that. Take the flowers off, bundle them up and throw them into the Special Inquisitor’s face. Motivated by that thought she went back to the mirror and removed all of them from her hair, which took too damn long in Nia’s opinion because _someone_ had been very meticulous with this task.

Once everything was said and done, Nia tore the door open to leave and found herself eye to eye with Rex who had just been about to enter the house.

“N-Nia?” he asked taken aback when he noticed her angry expression.

“Move!!” she shouted at him and the boy jumped and made enough space for her to stomp past him.

The young salvager looked after her, a more than confused expression on his face. He grew even more confused when he noticed that his friend was holding a bouquet in one of her hands. “W-what’s going on?” he asked towards the blades’ and Tora’s direction.

Brighid had a smirk hidden behind one of her hands while she answered: “Diplomacy at its finest, I’d say.”

It surprised Rex to hear the amusement in her voice, Brighid sounded ready to laugh out loud, something he would have never expected from the ever composed blue flame blade.

Next to her Dromarch agreed with a wide smile and a nod. “Indeed.”

Pyra had her lips pressed into a flat line while she tried to suppress a laugh, while Tora didn’t bother at all to hide his entertainment.  


Mòrag’s walk had taken her out of Fonsett village and nearby the shore of the Cloud Sea, by the same path they had arrived earlier the day. It was a pretty sight, the green grass growing thinner until only white sand was left, the birds walking by the shore… A soft, warm breeze wafted through the area, it made Mòrag feel at peace.

“Mòrag!!”

Until someone went and inevitably destroyed it.

But Mòrag had recognised the voice and had expected Nia to catch up with her eventually. She was just a bit surprised that the Gormotti had been so quick already. She turned around to face her and was immediately greeted with a flower bouquet hurled in her direction. Mòrag caught it reflexively and when she recognized the flowers as the ones she had put into Nia’s hair she couldn’t help but smirk.

“I didn’t realize you thought so fondly of me already.”

The response staggered Nia for a moment. “Wha-?!” She only realized the implication of Mòrag’s words when she noticed the woman’s smug smile and the subtle shaking of the bouquet in her direction. Nia’s cheeks then reddened, the colour very clear against the white markings on her face.

“You know _exactly_ where I got these from!” she yelled in response.

“Hm…” Mòrag eyed the flowers while she ran her hand along the blossoms. “Maybe from behind Corinne’s house?”

“Oh, stop playing dumb!” Nia stomped one of her feet on the ground. “Why would you do this anyway?!”

“I don’t know what you are referring to…” Mòrag raised her eyes again to meet Nia’s. “Though, I do find it very interesting that you didn’t deny being fond of me,” she noticed.

Again, Nia was at a loss for words and the blush on her cheeks deepened. “That’s…!” She made a subconscious step back.

“Especially after you made such a fuss about not liking and trusting me back at Alba Cavanich,” Mòrag just continued and there was a mischievous glint in her eyes now.

Nia then snapped out of it and glared at the other woman. “I still don’t like you!” she shouted. Then she turned on her heels and walked away.

“I see we are making progress if you trust me now at least,” she heard Mòrag’s voice behind her.

Nia’s ears twitched in annoyance. She turned back for a final scream: “You are impossible!”

Mòrag’s only answer was to press a gloved hand against her mouth while she struggled to suppress her laughter.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: The whole scene with the flowers didn't exist in my original file, but when the idea crossed my mind I found it so insanely funny that I somehow HAD to squeeze that thing in XD ~


	6. Truce?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In Indol Nia finally decides to call Mòrag out on her shenanigans. Mòrag promises to stop, but little did she know that fate had something different in store for them...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While this was mostly planned as "mainplot happening in the background" I can't really ignore what happens to Niall in Indol XD   
> Besides, this is an important moment for the both of them and Nia's canon "Let's just say you owe me one" line is pretty much the reason why this story called favour :P
> 
> I tried to keep that scene short though, because I didn't feel like simply reproducing the game's lines as I'm sure it would boring to read anyway~

Ever since their arrival in Indol Nia had felt uneasy. It was no surprise, really, those bastards had been hunting her for almost ten years of her life and made it a living hell – and now she had waltzed straight into the place as if she didn’t have any other worries.   
Their audience with the Praetor was scheduled for tomorrow morning, so _obviously_ they had decided to do some sightseeing, each in their own pace, so they had split up.

Nia didn’t have much interest in her surroundings. Yes, the architecture was beautiful and she had never seen so many buildings and streets made out of marble, but looking at the refugee camp within plain sight really destroyed the illusion of a peaceful place. Somewhere far away she could hear a choir singing and she had to admit, the music actually did stir something inside her heart. She couldn’t tell what exactly she felt when listening to it though. Calm? Melancholy? It was a rather strange mix.

Dromarch, that traitor, had decided to accompany Brighid while she took a stroll around the city and Nia was still sulky about him leaving her alone just to walk off with the damn Jewel of the Empire.

Nia had wandered alone for a bit, had watched the people go about their business while she walked around, but she had grown tired of it quite quick. Not wishing to step any closer to the sanctum than necessary she stayed by the port area and after hearing about the current climate considering drivers and their blades she decided to stay clear from the refugee camp as well. She didn’t need to listen to stupid and vengeful people ramble about how much blades and drivers had destroyed their lives, when in reality it had been completely different forces orchestrating that war. She would just get herself worked up about things that weren’t her concern.

It was evening now and she had sat down in a café, on the plaza by the big stairs that led up to the sanctum. She had gotten herself an Indoline tea two hours ago or so, so that she had an excuse to stay seated, and had watched the people go by. She was just waiting for the time to pass so that they could move on, meet the Praetor and leave as soon as possible again.

Someone put a cup in front of her.

By the time Nia turned her attention to the drink, Mòrag had sat down in the chair opposite of hers, her own drink in her hand. There was a little smile on the Ardainian’s face, not as smug or sly than it had been on other occasions but it was enough to make Nia’s ears flatten and frown at her.

_Stupid Ardainian…!_

Nia didn’t feel like talking to her, especially not after that silly incident in Leftheria. Mòrag had not spoken to her after that, but she had carried those flowers all the way to the titanship and had even had the nerve to tell Zeke by the port that she couldn’t fight against him lest they would get tattered. The smug and entertained look on her face had been infuriating. She hadn’t needed to talk to Nia to still make fun of her with that.

When Nia had found the bloody bouquet on her bed stand, lying there and mocking her, she had hurled it off the ship’s railing without a second thought.

“What’s it with you always getting on my case?” she asked flat out.

Mòrag took her sweet time answering the question. She watched the people around them for a few moments and took a long sip from her cup first. “Can’t a woman simply buy her teammate a drink without getting interrogated?”

Nia huffed. Was this woman ever fazed by something? She took the cup in both her hands and even before she took her first sip she could smell the herbs and spices of Odifa. A free drink was a free drink, she guessed. It was better than Mòrag pulling stuff behind her back.

“Will you ever leave me alone with those shenanigans of yours?” she asked when she placed the cup down again.

Mòrag’s light brown eyes wandered from the crowd to the Gormotti woman again. “I will continue to do so until you accept me as a full member of the team and bear no spite against me anymore.” She gave her a polite smile.

Nia snorted. “That’s gonna be hard with the shit you pulled in Leftheria.”

There was an amused smile tugging at the corner of Mòrag’s lips. “Well, it seems that my efforts bore fruit if we went from you not liking and trusting me to just not liking me,” she stated.

The smile disappeared from Nia’s lips and she went back to frowning. “If I tell you what you wanna hear, will you stop pestering me?”

That amused smile became more apparent as Mòrag crossed her legs and leaned back in her chair. “If you mean it honestly.”

Nia narrowed her eyes at her. “I frickin’ hate you sometimes…”

“That sounds like I will have to put more effort into my endeavours,” the Special Inquisitor replied and raised her arm. “Maybe I should get you another drink?”

“NO!” Nia almost threw herself on the table and Mòrag lowered her hand again. “Stop being like that!”

“Like what?”

Nia groaned. “So… ugh, smug and snarky? Complacent? Just stop with all those small gifts already, it’s embarrassing!”

“You know what you have to do,” Mòrag gestured towards Nia’s end of the table. She placed her hands on her upper leg, while she waited for the Gormotti to speak.

Nia only glared at her. “Fine.” She straightened her posture. “I think of you as a trusted team member…” she mumbled and tried really hard to _not_ look like she hated every second of this situation. “Actually changed my mind shortly after we arrived in Leftheria and fought together a couple times… You fight well and immediately adjusted to the situation even though we were at each other’s throats before that. That’s pretty admirable,” she confessed. “I couldn’t do that so quickly.”

Mòrag nodded. “So you’ve got no reservations about me being on the team anymore?”

Nia also nodded. “Guess I _did_ get over the fact that you threw me in jail,” she said with a shrug. She took a sip of her Odifa. “You were nice and you tried to get along with us – especially me, in your own silly way at least. You could have just not cared and just done your job, but… you didn’t.” She frowned. “I still don’t get why though. I was mean and defiant and you still tried.”

Mòrag watched her with a thoughtful expression for a few moments. “It is good practice to actually get along with the people you work together with,” she finally replied.

Nia snorted. “Yeah, that sounds like something you’d say.” She sighed and leaned back into her chair. “Satisfied now?”

Mòrag chuckled. “Yes.”

“Good.” Nia gave her a smile and took another sip of her drink. The sun had set now and it had grown dark. Still no signs from the others. What were they doing the whole time? Probably got caught up in running errands – it’s what always happened after all. But now that Nia had some company she minded the delay a lot less.

“Hey, Mòrag?” she asked after they had both drank up their beverage.

“Yes?”

“You mind getting another round of drinks? I’ll pay.”

“We can just split the bill.”

“Oh no, you paid for this round and I’ll pay for the next,” Nia insisted.

Mòrag rested her head in her left hand while she examined Nia. “I get the feeling that you don’t like feeling indebted to others.”

“I _hate_ it,” Nia admitted. “Especially when people are being nice to me for no reason. It’s like they want to buy you off.”

“Ah yes, I remember you accusing me of wanting to bribe you.”

Nia rubbed the back of her neck while she averted her gaze. “Come on, you weren’t exactly subtle with your approach; and I was still not over the fact that you tried to kill us twice.”

“I never intended to kill you,” Mòrag clarified once again.

Nia chuckled. This was obviously still a sore topic for the Special Inquisitor.

“But I can see how my initial approach had not been the best idea considering the circumstances,” the Ardainian admitted.

There was a smirk on the Gormotti’s face now. “Anyway, lemme pay now and we can call it even.”

“Starting from scratch once again?”

Nia nodded. “Yup. No paying my tab behind my back, no secret gifts and _no_ damn flowers from here on out, are we clear?”

Mòrag chuckled. “Agreed.”

Nia gave her a fanged smirk. Now that everything was settled she found Mòrag a much more pleasant person to be around than she had initially thought. Hopefully all this silly to and fro with money and gifts would come to an end now and they could just act like normal people around each other. No doing silly favours and no owing anyone anything.

~

She had been wrong. Oh so wrong.

The moment she had seen Mòrag break down and cradling her little brother’s corpse in her arms, Nia had known that she had to do something. Anything. She hadn’t been able to bear the sight of the once proud woman sobbing and falling into despair and sadness, because she had lost the only family she had left.

Nia had told Dromarch to play the decoy so that she could make a miracle happen. He had told them that he had seen more enemies and had led them away. Mòrag had been torn between doing her duty and mourning. Nia had seen it so clearly in her face that it hurt, but eventually, Mòrag had given in and followed after the others. Maybe even in an attempt to push her feelings aside and compose herself for the things that had yet to come.

Nia had worked quickly, laying her trembling hands above the boy and focusing the ether onto his body. She had been afraid of getting found out, afraid of someone coming back prematurely, afraid of not being able to make it in time… When she had heard him mumble something, finally coming back to life, she had been relieved for more than one reason…

When the others returned she waved at them, gesturing them to come closer. “Hey, guys!! His majesty the emperor is awake!”

Immediately, Mòrag embraced the boy in a tight hug, never wanting to let go again.

When Nia saw them reunite, her heart grew heavy. Mòrag would probably never leave the emperor’s side after today. Never ever. Realizing this made her sad, for her own selfish reasons, but she was glad that they didn’t have to mourn another death so soon. It was better that way, she told herself. At least she had been able to spare Mòrag this kind of pain.

At some point Mòrag let finally go of Niall and tried to regain her composure again. She faced Nia, her brown eyes still glistening from the happy tears she had shed mere moments ago. “Nia, I… I don’t know how I will ever… it’s…”

It was almost cute how she stumbled over her own words, how she was not able to put the overwhelming feelings inside her into any coherent sentence. But only almost, because only something as dire as almost losing her brother would ever allow her to lose composure like this. In reality, Nia found it sad. But Mòrag was smiling and she did not bother hiding her relief and happiness over this unexpected turn of events.

“Don’t sweat it,” Nia then answered with a casual smirk. “Let’s just say you owe me one,” she suggested.

There was a moment of surprise in Mòrag’s expression, but eventually she agreed. “So much for being even,” she commented with an amused smile.

Nia sighed in defeat, but she smiled back. “Doesn’t matter.” For now, she was just glad that she had been able to turn the tides.

She did not want to think about the consequences of letting Niall die – however, she also did not want to think about how Mòrag would stay by his side forever now…

 

When they stood by the docks to take the ship towards Tantal and to continue on their journey Mòrag wasn’t with them.  Nia’s heart grew heavy.

“We could have at least said goodbye properly…”, she mumbled.

“She wasn’t in her room.”, Rex said with a frown. “I guess she is too busy with taking care of yesterday’s aftermaths.”

“Still…” Nia lowered her gaze. Of course he was right. Arguing against the facts was useless.

“We should leave,” Zeke just said, silently agreeing with Rex.

Nia nodded and turned around to take one last look at Indol, hoping that maybe, just maybe…

She almost jumped when she saw Mòrag and Brighid approach from the distance.


	7. Solace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On the titanship towards Tantal Mòrag is troubled by the fact that she couldn't protect her brother properly. Nia offers her comfort with a cup of tea and a little talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is very short, but it is honestly one of my favourite scenes~ a nice, quiet moment in between happenings.

The night was brisk and cold on the titan ship’s deck.

Mòrag stood by the railing and watched the cloud sea slowly drift by. It was late and she knew it would have been for the best if she went to sleep, but she couldn’t stop thinking about leaving her brother behind so soon again. They had talked – he had almost urged her to tag along with Rex and the others; told her that this was where she would be needed the most. In her heart she knew he was right, but as his older sister it was still hard to know that he was on his own now, without Aegaeon – or anyone else she trusted with his protection for that matter. She should have stayed. Though, maybe she should have just protected him better in the first place…

“Hey,” a soft voice interrupted her thoughts.

Mòrag blinked, needing a moment to realize someone had been talking to her and turned her gaze away from the Cloud Sea and to the person standing next to her.

It was Nia, holding two steaming cups of tea in her hands. There was a soft expression in her eyes and somewhat of a smile, very gentle and subtle, not meant as a greeting. She offered one of the cups to Mòrag. “Thought you might be cold. You’ve been standing here for a while.”

Mòrag watched her for a moment and wondered how Nia had managed to enter her personal space without her noticing.   
“Thank you,” she said as she accepted the cup. “You don’t need to worry about an Ardainian feeling cold though,” she added with somewhat of an amused tone, not quite ready to smile yet.

“Oh, just take it,” Nia rolled her eyes. “It’s gonna do you good.”

Mòrag took a sip then, recognizing the drink as black tea with milk, and felt how the hot beverage helped her calm her mind a bit and while she hadn’t felt cold at all, the warmth somehow fought off the gloom and exhaustion she hadn’t realized was there. “How did you know?”

The Gormotti’s expression seemed sadder now, almost sympathetic. “Figured you’d still have a lot on your mind after all that’s happened…” she said with a little shrug. “I… had a similar experience. Couldn’t sleep for days after that.” She took a sip from her tea. “I dunno if you’re the type of person who wants company after something like this or if you wanna talk or not, but… you seemed a bit lonely.” Nia turned to face the Cloud Sea and rested her arms on the railing. “I can leave again if that’s what you want though.”

There was a lot of information to process from these words. Nia had something similar happen to her too…   
“It’s alright,” Mòrag replied. “I think some company may be for the best.” It was important to her to let Nia know that she welcomed the gesture and the company. Mòrag then turned again to watch the Cloud Sea too. She took another sip, waiting for Nia to speak up again, but after the silence stretched on for a while it became apparent that the Gormotti left it up to Mòrag to choose the pace and topic of their conversation.

“So… you also almost lost someone?” she inquired.

There was a sad smile on Nia’s face before her expression turned neutral again. “Architect only knows how much I wish it had been just an ‘almost’…” She began clicking her nails against the cup.

Mòrag didn’t know what to reply to this. “I’m sorry,” was the only thing that came to her mind.

Nia shrugged. “It’s been ten years, don’t worry about it.”

Ten years? Nia must’ve been so young then when it had happened…to lose anyone at that age was hard. Mòrag wondered who it had been and suddenly, her own father came to her mind whom she had lost before she had grown up.

Nia gave her a sideways glance and when she saw the melancholy expression she came a bit closer and nudged the Ardainian with her hip, causing Mòrag’s brown eyes to look at her again.

“It’s in the past,” Nia said with a comforting little smile and Mòrag couldn’t help but smile too in response, because Nia’s words had sounded as if the Gormotti had known what was on her mind mere moments ago.

Mòrag just nodded, there was nothing to add to those words.

She continued drinking in silence, incidentally noticing that Nia stayed close instead of moving back to her original position. Mòrag felt her body heat, a stark contrast to the cold breeze wafting continuously around them. For some reason, Mòrag did not feel like circling back to her fears and doubts regarding Niall – it was as if Nia’s presence warded off the negative thoughts. Unconsciously she leaned a bit closer towards the smaller woman.

“Thank you, Nia,” she whispered.

The Gormotti ear closest to Mòrag flicked and Nia smirked. “Nothing to it,” she replied, looking somehow accomplished.

 A warmth then crept up Mòrag’s cheeks, which she was sure did not come from the tea.


	8. Just Do What You Always Do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group arrives in Tantal, so Zeke obviously takes them sightseeing instead of meeting his father right away...

Zeke had not been in a rush to meet with his father. At all.

Instead he had decided to give his new friends a lengthy tour around Theosoir, which had apparently not been as lengthy as he had it hoped to be, mainly because most of the shops were centred in the so-called “Black Market” of the town which may not have been very legal but provided its citizens with at least an opportunity to buy food and drink. Though the prices paid were ridiculous and as he explained to them, this was because Tantal as a nation had isolated themselves from the rest of the world and the cold climate and limited resources had jacked up the worth of everything edible.

It was sad. A once proud nation had chosen its own slow demise out of fear to get involved with the world’s affairs.

But Zeke just glossed over all the gloomy facts and announced loudly that they hadn’t seen any of Tantal’s natural beauty yet. With those words, he put his arms around Rex’s and Nia’s shoulders, pulled them into somewhat of a headlock and lead them out of town towards Tantal’s lower level. Mòrag and Tora had been busy looking through the shops and only followed when Poppi pointed out that it seemed they were leaving.

Nia sneezed and then shuddered. “Natural beauty, my ass…!” There was only snow here!! Snow. Snow. Snow! Everywhere she looked was a vast field of nothing but _snow_!

The others seemed to enjoy this, which Nia was not surprised by since it never really snowed in Gormott, Leftheria or Mor Ardain. Tora was trying to ice-skate on a nearby frozen lake, while Poppi and Pyra watched him curiously from the shore, aware that their more than average weight may prove too much for the layer of ice. Pandoria was with Tora, outdoing him by showing off her unexpected skill on holding herself on the slippery surface. Brighid and Mòrag were watching them as well, neither one of them with the intention of joining Pandoria and Tora.

“Bless you, my lady,” Dromarch just said next to her.

“Thanks,” Nia just replied with a sniffle. “Ugh, I just wanna go back to the inn…!”

“Aww, come on, Fuzzy Ears, it’s not that bad.” Zeke suddenly popped up next to her and she jumped.

“It’s cold and there is nothing to see here!” she shouted with a frown.

Zeke stayed unimpressed from her little outburst. “Are you kidding? Just look around! All these ruins, a sign of the rich history of Tantal!” He made a gesture that encompassed their surroundings.

She just stared flatly at him.

Suddenly, Zeke looked at something behind her and he ducked. Moments later, a snowball passed by her face, missing it by mere inches and she turned around and saw Rex with a mischievous smile on his face.

“Oi, what’s that supposed to be when it’s finished?!” she asked him angrily.

“Come on, Nia!” Rex smirked. “We gotta make use of that opportunity! Or have you ever seen a place with this much snow?”

“I haven’t, but that doesn’t mean I fancy getting hit by it in the face!” She crossed her arms defiantly, which she realized was a major mistake, because it lowered her defence and Rex just formed another snowball in his hands.

“Don’t be such a spoilsport, Fuzzy Ears,” Zeke said behind her, and her ears perked up, sensing danger.

She ducked immediately, just in time for Zeke’s and Rex’s snowballs to miss her. Instead, Rex’s snowball hit Zeke in the face while the opposite was true for Zeke’s. Realizing that the two guys had hit each other instead of her made her laugh out loud gleefully. Both, Rex and Zeke blinked once in confusion, then they squatted down to make another snowball.

“Don’t you dare!” Nia hissed when she saw that and immediately ran away towards the others. Dromarch on the other hand just watched the two males follow his driver, while his tail moved amusedly back and forth.

Rex threw another snowball at Nia, which she dodged again. She dared look behind her while she ran and saw another incoming snowball from Zeke. What she did not see though, was where she was going and so she stumbled upon a stone and fell face first into the soft, but very cold snow. The snowball missed her, however its trajectory led it to another unintentional target…

Something akin to a hiss could be heard when the snowball hit the back of Brighid’s head. Whether this was because the snow evaporated before it could properly melt or because of Brighid’s disdain over that unpleasantly cold and wet _thing_ hitting her, couldn’t be said. She turned around, and, despite having her eyes closed, she managed to shot a death gaze so dire at Zeke that it made him stop in his tracks.

Immediately, she had her Whipswords in her hands, but she stayed in place, looking at her driver first for the silent permission to go ahead.

When Mòrag gave her a nod, Brighid slowly paced towards Zeke, weapons enhanced with her blue flames and the whips perked up.

“Uh-oh.” Zeke turned around and just ran.

Rex laughed at the scene, until he was silenced with a snowball to the face. When he wiped the snow off, he looked around for the culprit and saw Tora grinning victoriously. Rex understood the challenge and soon he was chasing the Nopon around while trying to hit him. What Rex didn’t notice though, was that Poppi was also onto the game and while he was occupied chasing her masterpon, he left himself wide open for her to hit him with a massively big snowball that was almost her own size.

Pandoria and Pyra then decided to help their drivers out in their more than unfair battles and Nia just stood up, patted the snow of her suit and decided to walk as far away from the action as possible – which was the other side of the frozen lake. What she saw from the distance was Dromarch turning his head to Brighid, saying something and after she replied he accompanied her on her way to flambé Zeke.

She shuddered and hugged herself in an attempt to keep warm. Oh, how she wished the others would just stop those silly antics and return to the inn already.

Nia heard the sound of boots in the snow approaching her and her ears perked up while she looked towards the direction they came from. Of course it was Mòrag, the only other person who seemingly did not wish to participate in those antics. Though, her movements were different, almost… hesitating? Nia raised an eyebrow, not sure what to make of this observation.

“Nia?” Mòrag called her, and her voice matched her demeanour.

She was shy, Nia realized. “Yeah?” she just replied, not bothering to hide her confusion.

“I…” Mòrag averted her gaze, then she took something out of one of her pockets and presented it to the Gormotti woman. “I want you to take this.”

It was a Healing Amulet. Nia raised both her eyebrows and looked from the piece of jewellery towards the Special Inquisitor, who still had her light brown eyes directed towards the ground.

Nia blinked and took it in both her hands, holding it by its chain and examining it curiously. It was a pretty little piece, and when she placed the amulet in the palm of her hand she could feel a positive energy radiating from it.

This was… uncharacteristic. Not only because of Mòrag’s behaviour, but the gift itself did not really fit the pattern from before. After her initial plan of paying the tab had backfired Mòrag had resorted to small things, like the shell or the flowers or a cup of tea… but this, this actually seemed expensive. Nia’s cheeks reddened and she looked back to Mòrag with a puzzled expression.

“Because of Niall, I… I just can’t help thinking that I…”

Ah, so that’s what it was. Nia’s expression softened and she smiled sadly. “I already told you that you just owe me one. You don’t need to go buy me extra stuff,” she eventually said.

“I know, but…” Mòrag finally looked up and there was a subtle sadness in her eyes. “My brother is the only family I have left and I am so, so happy that I didn’t lose him that day… I can’t help it. I feel compelled to do something in return...” She halted for a moment, averting her gaze once more. “I… I got this in Theosoir. The vendor said that it is said to protect its wielder…”

Nia’s ears flattened. Seeing Mòrag like that made her sad. This wasn’t the confident and cocky woman she had come to know. She forced herself to a smile, took Mòrag’s hand in hers and placed the amulet back in its palm. “I don’t need this. You are better than any amulet.”

Mòrag was surprised, almost taken aback by this gesture. “But…”

“No buts!” Nia interrupted her and rested the hand that had held the amulet on the Ardainian’s palm as well. “It’s fine, Mòrag, don’t worry about it. I will tell you if I call that favour in, so please: don’t behave any different because I saved him.” Her smile turned into an encouraging fanged smirk. “Just do what you always do.”

Mòrag stared back at her, not sure how to reply to this.

“Besides, we said ‘no gifts anymore’ in Indol, did you forget that already?” Nia teased her.

This actually brought an amused little smile to Mòrag’s face. “You said ‘no _secret_ gifts’,” she replied.

Nia snorted. “Damn, you take everything I say literally, don’t you?”

Mòrag smile grew a bit wider. “Didn’t you just say I should behave as always?”

Nia gave a defeated sigh, but the smile still stayed on her face.

Mòrag watched her for a few moments. “I will… try,” she then said in a more serious manner, her expression turning pensive once again. “I hope I won’t fail this time,” she added and her eyes seemed sad now.

Nia took notice of this and suddenly she remembered the image of Mòrag’s lonely silhouette standing on the titanship’s railing. As Special Inquisitor it had always been her duty to protect and, seeing how she had the reputation of being the strongest in her country, Nia could imagine that she had always been successful in fulfilling that duty. Almost losing her brother before her very eyes…   
For Mòrag to behave the way she did right now... It must have scarred her deeply .

“You will be fine…” the Gormotti whispered and her hold of Mòrag’s hand tightened unconsciously. Mòrag did not look at her when she said that and a few moments passed.

It took Nia a while to realize that her hands were still holding Mòrag’s and when she did, she blushed and awkwardly let go again. “Um…” she tried to comment on this, but was at a loss for words, so instead she stared sideways. Holding onto Mòrag had actually been quite nice… her hand was so warm compared to everything else around them… She looked shyly back at the taller woman, who gently clasped her fingers around the amulet with a thoughtful expression. Her cheeks seemed pinker than usual.

Before Nia could process the image she got hit by a snowball in the face. The cold let her forget anything she had just felt and thought and she turned around angrily to stare the culprit down. The snowball fight was still on, but it could have only been Tora, who whistled so obviously innocently that it gave him away immediately.

“So this is how you wanna do it, yeah?” Nia asked with a frown. Now fed up with all this, she decided to fight back. She crouched on the ground, forming as big a snowball as she could handle throwing accurately.

Mòrag suppressed a smile. “Do you require my support?”

Nia looked back at her, a pout on her face now. “Maybe with you we can end this quickly and finally go to the inn…!” She stood up again, holding her snowy weapon above her head with both her hands and stomped towards the Nopon.

This sight left the Special Inquisitor to chuckle and she slowly followed after Nia, ready to destroy with her blade weapon any projectile that threatened to hit the Gormotti woman’s adorable sulky face…


	9. The Will to Protect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nia struggles to move on in Elpys while she tries to hide her secret...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Elpys, the other in-game thing I can't really gloss over XD   
> This got rather lengthy compared to the rest, despite me trying to keep the game stuff short. 
> 
> I made a teensy-tiny tweak regarding Nia's love confession~ Originally I didn't wanna change much, but with all the shenanigans that happened so far, I wondered how it would change the dynamics between everyone and ended up with this scene~   
> Imo Elpys could have done without it either way, but I kinda needed a love confession this time around XD (See next chapter as to why that is~)

And so Mòrag continued to do what she could do best: protect.

Protect Nia, and watch out for her in every way she could. She took hits the fragile healer wouldn’t have been able to withstand, offered her a hand and encouraging words whenever Nia fell in battle… and silently guarded her in many a small and subtle ways…

It was apparent that Elpys ate away at the Gormotti driver. She had tried to keep up with the group several times, and each time she fell behind again, getting slower, every step taking visible effort to make.

Mòrag took notice of all this, as well as Dromarch, who had already tried to reason with his lady, but Nia had refused to turn back or ride on him. Part of Mòrag wondered _why_ Nia took the conditions in Elpys so hard. She had to admit, it was hard to breathe in this place beneath the ground because the fossilized titan body reacted with the atmosphere around them, thus also creating the ether absorbing particles that sapped at their blades’ strength; but apart from feeling as if she walked a steep mountain up instead of descending further, Mòrag felt largely unaffected.

It was not only Nia though. Zeke seemed to take this hike hard as well. While Mòrag could have reasoned with herself that Nia simply was not fit enough to deal with the lowered oxygen levels, what with her riding on Dromarch a lot of times, she could not say the same for Zeke who had been traveling for the past ten years on foot.

The Ardainian driver glanced towards her own blade. Luckily, Brighid seemed to hold herself quite well until now.

She could hear the Gormotti driver and blade duo whisper behind her.

“My lady, are you sure…”

“Sh!” Nia hissed at him. “I’m fine…” There was a short pause. “I have to.”

Silence followed after that and the Ardainian frowned, while she just continued to walk. She had asked herself time and time again how Nia had been able to save her brother, without Dromarch nearby at that too. He had been occupied, leading them on a wild goose chase while she had been alone with him…

_You guys never heard of first aid?_

It was an excuse Mòrag had not believed from the start. Not with her brother in such a condition that it had caused Aegaeon to return to his core crystal. But she hadn’t questioned it, because whatever Nia had to hide, it was certain that she meant no harm.

Now, with Nia struggling here in Elpys, Mòrag wondered if their teammate was a blade too. She had had the thought a while back, before they arrived in Theosoir, but it hadn’t made much sense to her. If Nia was a blade, where was her driver? And why had she a blade on her own too? Blades couldn’t resonate with core crystals as far as Mòrag was aware.

It had not made sense, so Mòrag had stopped thinking about it.

Suddenly, Zeke groaned and when Mòrag focused her attention back to her surroundings she saw the Tantalese prince fall on his knees.

“My prince!” In the next second, Pandoria was right by his side, a frantic look on her face.

Rex turned around, eyes wide open with surprise. “Zeke?! What’s wrong?”

The group stopped and gathered around him and albeit weak, he gave them a confident grin. “It’s nothing…” he replied and drew his coat a bit back, revealing part of a core crystal implanted in his left chest. “Just a bit handicapped.”

Rex was shocked. “Why didn’t you tell us beforehand?!”

Zeke shrugged nonchalantly. “Never came up,” he just said. He looked his friends in their faces and seeing the questions they had still on their minds, he turned to Pandoria and gave her a nod. When she nodded back, Zeke turned his attention back to the group and told them how this had come to be.

It had happened during their travels. Zeke had been gravely wounded and was on the verge of death, when they had been found by Amalthus and his followers. They had saved him with a procedure that had his origins in Judician technology.

“Blade Eater” he jokingly called himself and Mòrag wasn’t sure whether she should be concerned by the fact that Indol knew of and still applied such technologies. But the revelation brought a new suspicion to her mind and she looked towards Nia, who had listened to his story with an uncharacteristic stoic expression.

Mòrag almost expected her to speak up after Zeke and she did notice how her Gormotti ears subtly laid back for a moment and how her golden gaze wandered to her chest and up again but in the end she stayed silent.

After being repeatedly asked if he would be alright Zeke pressed them on to continue. He was laughing and seemed all confident and fine now, so that is what they did.

Mòrag moved on with Rex and Tora, but when she looked back she saw that Nia was whispering again with Dromarch. His blue eyes were full of sorrow and Nia looked at Zeke with something that Mòrag could only describe as longing admiration. Her heart grew heavy. If Nia was indeed a blade or something like a Blade Eater, in the same vein as Zeke… If that truly was the reason she struggled so much…

Mòrag inhaled deeply and only then she realized that the thought had made her hold her breath. Making a decision, she turned around and walked up to the duo.

“Nia?”

The Gormotti winced and she immediately straightened her posture in an attempt to not look as frail as she felt. “Yeah?”

“Are you alright?” Mòrag asked her.

The question came unexpected. Nia blinked. “Yes, of course. The air is just a bit thin down here is all.”

Mòrag eyed her for a moment, not bothering to hide her concerns. She placed her hands behind her back, wondering how she could voice her thoughts without putting the other woman on the spot. Nia would deny any and all of her theories if she flat out asked her.

“You are lying and I don’t know why, but could you tell me at least one thing?” she said and her hands tightened their grip behind her back.

Nia stayed silent and just stared at her, an aloof expression on her face.

“Can this place kill you?” Mòrag eventually asked. For a split second, Nia’s façade broke and Mòrag could not only see fear, but also sadness in her golden eyes. She averted her own gaze. “I knew it…” she simply whispered and her heart ached at the mere thought.

It must have shown on her face, because Nia regained her composure a short moment later. “What the hell kinda question is that?” Nia interrupted her and she furrowed her brows. “This place can kill us all, Inquisitor Smartypants!” she said with an angry twitch of her ears.

“My lady…” Dromarch began, but Nia held her arm out and shushed him. “Don’t.” She stared at the Ardainian woman, a defiant shine in her golden eyes.

 _Fool’s pride…_ Mòrag thought sadly when she saw that behaviour. “Please, be honest with me, Nia. I… I just want to protect you.”

Those words had strung the wrong chords with the smaller woman. Again, there was a moment where her expression gave her true feelings away, before she glared angrily back.

“You can’t protect me from this!” All of a sudden, Nia went silent again. She knew she had gone too far with those words. After all they had talked about in Tantal… how concerned Mòrag had seemed about being able to protect her… Nia lowered her gaze and bit her lip.

They fell silent and Mòrag just stared at the smaller woman, trying to not be hurt by what Nia had just said. “Please, Nia…” she began hesitantly. “I worry about you…”

Nia’s Gormotti ears perked up then and she looked at the other woman’s face again, a shell-shocked expression in her golden eyes, as if she was surprised to hear such words. “Mòrag…” Her gaze softened, unsure how to reply to that.

“Are friends alright?” Tora suddenly popped up next to the Ardainian woman and stared between the two of them. “Friends fell behind!”

They both looked at him and then lowered their gazes abashedly. Had he eavesdropped on their conversation? Though, Mòrag wasn’t sure if she could call it that considering how loud Nia had been…

“Tora was worried,” the Nopon then said and walked up to Nia. “If Nia wants rest, Nia has to ask!” he said and took her hand in one of his wings. “Can’t concentrate on protecting others if Tora worries all the time about Nia collapsing!”

“You too, Tora…?” Nia wasn’t sure how to reply to that. She looked at him, lips pursed and then back to Mòrag, and threw her an apologetic glance.

Tora trotted back with her towards the direction the others had gone and when he passed by Mòrag again, he gave her a look she couldn’t quite read, smiled and took the Ardainian’s hand in his other wing. “Mòrag don’t need to worry! Tora and Poppi can defeat monsters alone. Can both protect Nia! Tora fights and Mòrag makes sure Nia takes break!” With those words, he dragged both women with him.

Nia chanced a glance towards Dromarch, who nodded with a smile and then she turned towards Mòrag again. “I’m sorry…” she whispered, ashamed for lashing out at her.

Mòrag accepted the apology with a little smile. “It’s alright.”

And so they continued. Tora eventually let go of them again and walked up front with Poppi, where he would be needed the most in case of a monster attack. Nia was still too proud to admit that she needed a rest, but Mòrag noticed when her breathing got flatter and she began to support herself against Dromarch.

When Mòrag looked over her shoulder to check on the two for the umpteenth time her eyes met Nia’s and she saw the silent plead for help, which prompted her to call out to Rex and propose a rest.

“Heh, Furry Ears, if you are tired you can just put your head on my lap,” Zeke said when they all sat down by the campfire Poppi had made.

“How about… you put… your head up your _arse_?” Nia hissed back, despite having major trouble with her breathing now.

He gave her an insufferable charming grin. “I’m just worried about you, Furry Ears.”

Pandoria just laughed and patted her driver on his shoulder. “My prince, I think you should worry about yourself,” she commented when Nia replied to that with another very colourful response.

“Nia, try this,” Rex then said and offered her an air tank.

The Gormotti blinked surprised and took it in her hands, while she looked back at the boy. She seemed to be in deep thought and eventually her gaze wandered back to Zeke, then to Tora, Dromarch and eventually to Mòrag. “Everyone…”

There was somewhat of a sad smile on her now, but when she went to make use of that air tank, Rex suddenly chuckled. “That’s not how you do it,” he said and quickly went on to explain when she glared angrily at him. The rest of the group just laughed.

~

When Nia had sat with the others by the campfire she had realized something important: they worried about her. Each and every one of them. And they didn’t worry about her because she was their group healer, no… they just genuinely wanted her to be alright. Because they cared for her. Because she was their friend.

When the shadows had appeared they had been at a grave disadvantage. The group had been unprepared and exhausted, and while their foes weren’t strong they just reappeared every time there were only a few left.

Nia had tried to find the courage to tell their friends who, or rather _what_ , she really was, but when she had started narrating her story back at the camp she hadn’t been able to do it. After all, she had tried to hide this part for ten years now and had never expected to ever bring it up again. She had wanted to forget about all this, live like a human…

Now her friends were in danger, struggling against a seemingly invincible foe, who was intent on killing them all. And she didn’t even fight with her full powers. She didn’t know whether revealing her true form would turn the tides, but she had to try: for their sake.

And so she transformed. All those years, being found out had been her worst fear, had robbed her several nights of sleep when the anxiety had grown ever so much after all that had happened. She was surprised how this time she felt calm. Just calm and at peace. It was the right thing to do.

The light of her transformation had repelled the phantasms, which gave everyone a breather and precious moments to process what had just happened.

“Meh-meh?!” she could hear Tora exclaim. “Friend Nia is blade??”

She turned to him and just gave him a fanged smile.

“She is not just some blade…” Mòrag realized. “She is a Flesh Eater…”

Nia then looked towards her and saw the surprise in the Ardainian’s light brown gaze. Nia gave her a curt nod and smiled apologetically. “Sorry for not telling you earlier…” She had had her suspicions, Nia had been aware of that, and when Mòrag had tried talking to her about it when they had entered Elpys she had become frightened and lashed out.

“Looking good,” Zeke just said with a forced smile, trying to look as if the fight hadn’t taken a great toll on him. Nia was ready to give him a piece of her mind for that comment, when she heard someone call her.

“Nia, watch out!” It was Rex who shouted. She turned around, a moment too late to react to the phantasm rising behind her, but Rex came to her aid and cut it down with Roc’s Dual Scythes. He gave her one of his encouraging grins and she couldn’t help but grin back.

In that moment Nia knew that her transformation had been no mistake. She looked at her friends and then back to Rex who stood in front of her and her heart felt finally free.

“I love you,” she said with the biggest smile on her face.

Rex was shocked but she just grinned cheekily, her golden eyes glancing behind him to see the rest of the party’s reaction, who seemed equally surprised at those words. “Wha-?!”

There was another phantasm coming up behind him and Nia rushed past the boy to slay it. He blinked, part of him still not having processed what had been just said, but when he saw the enemies approaching her, he reflexively came to her aid and defeated those.

Then he turned to face Nia again and gave her the biggest smile: “I love you too, Nia!” he announced and before she could react, he turned back to look at the others. “I love you, and everyone!”

Nia heard those words and laughed out loud. “Isn’t that right?” she agreed with an amused smile. They nodded at each other and she handed him his sword. It was time to unleash hell!

~

The results of their trip in Elpys had been sobering. They had found the third Aegis sword, but as soon as Rex had touched it, it had dissipated into dust. Yet, Mòrag had noticed the change in his expression, the look of someone who had realized something none of them could ever hope to understand. So Mòrag had expressed her confidence in him and the others had followed her example.

Together they decided to return to Fonsett.

The way back was easier to overcome. They had cleared their path of monsters on their way down already and the ether absorbing particles grew thinner the more they approached the exit. Despite all these things though, Nia was once again faltering.

Mòrag stopped in her tracks and waited for Nia and Dromarch to catch up, while the others simply continued on. She decided to say nothing and just watched the Flesh Eater approach her.

There were… still some things Mòrag wanted to ask Nia, especially about what had happened in the Hero’s vault, but she decided to push all these thoughts and the pain she had felt at hearing that love confession to the back of her mind. Nia was terribly exhausted and surely not up for this kind of conversation, so Mòrag decided to wait.

“Thanks for waiting,” Nia said when she had finally caught up.

“You look pale,” Mòrag noticed.

Nia gave her a very offended look, but instead of voicing her indignation she stared at the woman for a few seconds, before her ears flattened and she lowered her gaze sheepishly. “It’s been an exhausting trip…” she admitted.

“I already offered her to ride on my back, but she refused,” Dromarch then said.

Nia frowned. “You’re also a blade, Dromarch. This place saps away at you too, how could I possibly take you up on that offer, knowing how hard it is for you?”

“Hm.” There was an amused smile on Mòrag’s face now. “And if I was to carry you?” she asked. “This place doesn’t really affect me, after all.”

Nia stared at her dumbfounded while Dromarch nodded with a satisfied smile. “A splendid idea, Lady Mòrag.”

Nia looked between the two of them and made a wary step back, as if she had just encountered a mighty monster. “I – I think we should get a move on, can’t barely see the others…” she said and tried to walk past Mòrag as innocently as she possibly could.

The Ardainian just held a hand out and grabbed Nia by the wrist. “I’m sure this whole ordeal was very draining for you, physically and emotionally…” she began and to Nia it sounded more sinister than it really was.

Nia blushed at the sudden contact and tried to wriggle out of Mòrag’s grasp. “D-don’t you dare…!” But the more she struggled, the more she encouraged the Ardainian to put her silly folly into motion. Mòrag grabbed her other wrist now too, a _very_ polite smile on her face.

“I don’t want a piggyback ride!”

If Dromarch hadn’t known better, hearing his lady tone may have prompted him to think that she was about to be tortured. “I will leave it to you then,” he said and moved on.

“Oi, Dromarch! Get back!” Nia yelled after him, almost frantic now.

“I don’t know why you resist so much. It is for your own good.” Mòrag’s smile had evolved into a straight up cocky smirk.

And Nia hated so much to admit it, even if only to herself, but she was exhausted. Very much so. Her legs began to tremble and she stopped resisting. “Ugh,” she groaned. “Fine.” It was then when Mòrag let go of her.

“Just… don’t let the others see…” Nia asked of her meekly.

Mòrag tried to suppress a chuckle. “A fool’s pride indeed…” she whispered more to herself than to Nia.

Nia’s ears perked up and she frowned. “Did you say something?!” Her cheeks were red now. Yes, she had definitely caught her words.

“Not at all,” Mòrag replied and squatted down a bit so that Nia could climb onto her.

The Flesh Eater huffed and fought down any embarrassment she may have felt, when she put her arms around the Ardainian’s neck and when Mòrag placed her hands beneath Nia’s thighs and lifted her from the ground as if she weighed nothing.

Mòrag started walking again, her pace quick so that they didn’t fall too far behind, but she complied with Nia’s wishes and kept her distance to the group, just enough that they were all within sight.

Not long afterwards, Nia rested her head on the other woman’s right shoulder. “You are so warm…” she said drowsily and pressed her body closer to Mòrag’s back. Her ears twitched and Mòrag felt the one closest to her brushing her cheek.

Mòrag gave her a sideways glance, not wanting to risk to pinch the blade’s ear. What could she possibly reply to that? “I’m… glad you think that,” she said after a long while and her cheeks may have gotten some more colour in them than usual.

“Mhm…” Nia just murmured and a few moments later, Mòrag felt how the body she carried relaxed and how Nia’s grip around her loosened.

Mòrag could only smile at that. She tightened her grip, so that Nia didn’t fall off her back, now that she didn’t hold on to her anymore. She may have lowered her pace a bit after that… They had still a long way to go until Fonsett and Mòrag had to save her energy. It was definitely not because she wanted to enjoy this for a little while longer.


	10. Favour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nia and Mòrag have a little talk after they return from Elpys~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *shipping intensifies*

Nia awoke in the middle of the night. Nothing in particular had woken her up, she had just slept for long enough. She blinked, needing a few attempts before she could open her eyes properly. She sat up slowly and the blanket she had been covered with slipped from her body. A bit confused she held part of it up with one hand, wondering how she had gotten into bed in the first place. Someone must have tucked her in… The thought induced a fuzzy and warm feeling inside her chest.

When her eyes got used to the dark she looked around curiously and recognized the silhouettes as the furniture in Corinne’s bedroom. How had she landed in one of the beds? The last thing she remembered was how Mòrag had carried her in Elpys… She must have fallen asleep at some point.

The blade blinked, face suddenly flushed. She hadn’t said anything embarrassing, hopefully? She looked around and her eyes made out the five other beds. Corinne had explained to them during their stay that she often took care of other children, mostly orphaned ones, which is why she had so many beds. Her house was a sanctuary and an orphanage at the same time for all those children.

Now it was her friends who slept in those beds. She heard Zeke snore and mumble something about the mighty Zekenator inducing fear in the hearts of his enemies… She stared flatly at him and shook her head in disapproval.  
From the bunk bed above her Nia could hear a repeatedly mumbled “mehmehmeh”. Rex slept in the bed above Zeke’s, an arm and a leg stretched over the railing, making no sound whatsoever. She could barely hear him breathe.  
Pandoria and Poppi slept on the last pair of bunk beds.

Nia tilted her head curiously. Where were Mòrag and Brighid? She turned around and hung her legs over the bed’s edge and winced when she felt Dromarch’s fur grazing along her legs. She quickly pulled them back up again lest she stepped on him. She leaned over the edge of her bed and saw him soundly sleeping lengthways to it. He was a loyal soul, always by her side no matter where. Nia smiled fondly before she crawled to the foot of the bed and left it from there.

She tiptoed her way out of the bedroom, taking care to not wake anyone up.

Mòrag and Brighid weren’t in the kitchen either. Did they go out for a walk? How late was it, anyway?

Since Nia had nothing better to do, she stepped out of the house and decided to answer these questions. She was more awake now and thanks to all that sleep she did not feel like going back to bed at all. If Brighid was around she would be easy to spot in the dark – and where Brighid was, so was usually her driver.

The night was brisk, almost cold compared to the warmth of Corinne’s house. Nia decided to take a long walk around the village up to its very edge where the old abandoned building stood, along the graveyard and back to where the vendors had their shops. She had actually expected to see Brighid’s blue flames at some point, they should have been clearly visible in the dark after all, but to her surprise she didn’t.

None of the villagers was up at this time of night. Seeing how this was some backwater village meant to Nia that it was somewhere between midnight and 4 a.m. before dawn broke.

She felt a bit restless. Being her true self once more… She had never even considered the possibility, but here she was now, walking around in her blade form and she had to admit that she had missed it. She had no reason to be afraid anymore. Her friends had been there with her and they had accepted her as who she was – this was all she had ever needed. Someone to not push her away or betray her…

She made her way back towards Corinne’s house and passed by the well and from the corner of her eye she noticed a silhouette sitting on one of the benches. Nia stopped mid-step and turned her head around to get a better view.

Yup, there was no mistaking that shape. Especially not with that hat. Had Mòrag noticed her? Nia quietly made a few steps back and made the effort to hide behind a nearby tree. Mòrag hadn’t moved, so there was a chance she hadn’t heard Nia’s footsteps.

Feeling cheeky, Nia sneaked up on her. Carefully she set one foot after another and tried to make as little sound as possible… She raised her arms and closed in. Just quickly put them on the Inquisitor’s eyes and ask “Guess who?”…

When Nia made her move Mòrag ducked and the blade grasped into empty space. Nia stared at the spot in confusion, needing a moment to realize what had just happened.

“You call _that_ sneaking?” Mòrag’s voice asked and she straightened her posture again. Her tone alone had been enough for Nia to know that she was smirking. With a sulky pout she took her hands back.

“How did you know?”

Mòrag looked over her shoulder with a sly smile. “I can’t tell you that now, can I?”

Nia rolled her eyes. “The Special Inquisitor cannot possibly reveal her secrets to a peasant like me,” she said mockingly. This only got her another smile from the Inquisitor and Nia decided to drop the act and sat down next to the woman.

“Whatcha doing here out late?” she asked curiously.

“Just enjoying the calm,” Mòrag replied and closed her eyes for a moment.

She looked tired. Nia watched her thoughtfully. “Shouldn’t you be asleep? It’s late.” Then she remembered something else. “And where is Brighid?”

“On her way to Mor Ardain,” Mòrag answered. She opened her eyes again and glanced towards Nia who stared curiously back.

Knowing that this was not a satisfactory explanation she elaborated: “When we returned here, we discussed our next steps. Rex described the place he saw in his vision and Dromarch and I both came to the conclusion that what he saw were the Cliffs of Morytha, a decaying titan in close proximity to the World Tree. Since that is too dangerous a place for an ordinary titanship to reach I sent Brighid ahead of time to make arrangements in Mor Ardain so that we can use one of our military vessels to travel there.”

Nia let those new informations sink in and then she frowned. “Wait, where was _I_ during all this?”

“You were asleep and didn’t so much as stir when we talked on the way, so I put you to bed,” Mòrag simply stated.

Nia then remembered how someone had carefully tucked her in and felt her cheeks grow warm. So Mòrag was the one who had done it? “You should’ve just woken me up…” she murmured, but she wasn’t really angry at that. She lowered her gaze.

“I figured you needed the rest after everything that happened,” Mòrag replied and leaned back. She raised her head towards the sky and her gaze got lost quickly amongst the stars.

“What about you?” Nia’s voice whispered next to her. “Did you sleep? You bloody carried me all the way back…”

“A bit,” the Ardainian answered honestly. “I tried to sleep after Brighid left in the afternoon, but I was too wound up to rest properly and awoke after two hours again.”

“Oh, I see…” Nia looked back at her. “Was something on your mind that prevented you from sleeping?” she inquired.

Mòrag shook her head. “Nothing of the sort. It’s not unusual for me to be able to sleep for only a little while after an excessive strain, to which we can certainly count today’s events.”

Nia’s golden eyes stayed on the Ardainian. “Huh, would’ve expected you to sleep like a log,” she just said.

Mòrag’s lips curved into a small smile, but she did not comment her friend’s words.

They fell silent after that and Nia leaned into the bench’s back and decided to look at the sky as well. She was surprised to spot an aurora. It was a green curtain of light, slowly moving in the night sky like a flag during a gentle breeze. Nia had never seen anything like it before.

She just stared at it, suddenly becoming very aware that she may not have lived another day to see this beauty. She turned to Mòrag again. “Thank you.”

The Ardainian blinked once in surprise before she turned to Nia as well. “What for?”

“For watching out for me in Elpys. I was so stubborn because I was afraid of everyone finding out what I am. I felt cornered when you talked to me, even though you only wanted to make sure I won’t kill myself down there. Then came Tora and the others… and I realized that everyone was worried about me. That gave me the courage to be my real self when we got attacked by those shadows.”

“Which in return turned the tides in battle…” Mòrag concluded.

Nia nodded. “I’m not sure I would have realized this without you there. So, thank you.” There was a little smile on her lips now.

Mòrag eyed her thoughtfully for a few long moments until she finally turned away from Nia again, pretending to watch the stars. This seemed uncharacteristic for the Special Inquisitor so Nia leaned a bit over to get a better look at the other woman’s face. She waited for Mòrag to reply, her ears twitching curiously every now and then.

“No need to thank me. I was merely doing what I would have done for all my comrades,” the Ardainian finally replied. She crossed her legs then and placed her hands on them, her gaze still focused on the sky. “Speaking of the occurrences in Elpys…” she began, trying to sound somewhat casual.

Nia cocked her head, curious as to what would come next.

“I had no idea that you harboured such feelings for Rex…”

Nia’s ears stopped twitching and she may have blushed in that moment. “W-what are you talking about?”

“The love confession in the Hero’s Vault?” Mòrag reminded her.

Nia’s eyes widened. “Oh,” she only said. “ _That_ …” There may have been a nervous chuckle. “That was meant for all of you guys.”

Hearing this, Mòrag finally dared to look at her again. “You were clearly looking at _him_ when you said it.”

“Well, everyone was kinda standing apart!” Nia huffed and crossed her arms, straightening her back in the process. “Would have felt weird saying this while looking at no one in particular!” She sulkily turned away.

“So… you only meant to proclaim your love for us as friends?” Mòrag’s voice asked behind her.

Nia just pouted and remained silent. Then she noticed something and turned back to Mòrag with a frown. “Why are you so interested in this anyway?” And then she saw something she had never seen in Mòrag’s expression before: embarrassment. The question had clearly caught her off-guard.

Mòrag cleared her throat and now it was her who turned away. “I was merely curious…” Nia could have sworn that she had never heard that sheepish undertone before. “Is it not allowed for me to indulge into girl talk from time to time?”

“Girl talk? _You_?” Nia raised an eyebrow. Something was clearly off. “What? You wanted to talk to me about boys and the like?”

“Well, I thought you may have been in need for such a talk, after Rex so clearly rejected you romantically…”

This only got a snort out of the Flesh Eater. “I told you: I don’t love him that way,” she insisted. She leaned in closer and couldn’t help but notice how Mòrag’s eyes flicked to her and then nervously back to the side. Was Nia actually making her nervous? Now, if that was the case then this would be a great opportunity to pay Mòrag back for all the pranks and oh-so smug behaviour ever since she had joined their party…

An idea came to her mind and she smirked cheekily. “I can prove it to you, if you’d like.”

Again, those light brown eyes only glanced at her. “How would you prove such a thing?”

 _Time to strike…_ Nia thought and placed her hand on the Ardainian’s thigh, a suave smile on her lips now. “I could kiss you.”

That leg clearly tensed beneath her hand, as well as the rest of the Special Inquisitor’s body. “How would that prove anything?”

“Why would I want to kiss you, if I were in love with someone else?”

Those light brown eyes widened at the thought and Mòrag coughed into her hand, once again pretending to clear her throat. “You are being ridiculous. The act of kissing can be performed without any feelings behind them. You could be in love and still kiss someone else.”

“Yes, but why would I _want_ that? Typically, people don’t feel like kissing others if they are not their object of affection.” It was really cute how Mòrag tried to rationalize these things. Nia’s grin grew a little wider. “ _Wait a second_ ,” she began, her voice smug. “Might you be embarrassed at the thought of kissing me, oh mighty Special Inquisitor?”

And there it was: complete and utter shock at Nia’s statement. _Bull’s eye._ Now that was some very interesting information. Nia scooted a bit closer and placed her other hand on the Inquisitor’s shoulder.

Instead of looking at her, Mòrag just stubbornly stared straight ahead. “Nonsense. I just find your reasoning ridiculous.”

“But didn’t you just say that the ‘act of kissing’,” Nia chuckled at the words Mòrag had chosen beforehand, they sounded so dry and matter-of-factly, as if the Ardainian had studied these things in a textbook, “can be performed without any feelings behind them? So why would you have reservations? If anything, it would be just my loss if I lied about that.”

Nia couldn’t see it because it was dark, but she was sure that by now the Inquisitor’s cheeks had turned a deep red. As if to emphasize that, Mòrag pulled down her visor a bit, a gesture that had no real effect in the dark, except to hide her face. There couldn’t be many reasons for Mòrag to behave like that, she either had no experience whatsoever with these things or… the kiss would actually mean something to her. Heat rose into Nia’s cheeks when she realized this, but curious as she was, she wanted to get to the bottom of this.

“I see how it is,” Nia said and leaned back and let go to give Mòrag a false sense of security. This wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.

Just when Mòrag thought she could relax, Nia started her next assault: “You have never kissed anyone before. That’s why you are so shy, aren’t you?”, she asked with a self-satisfied grin.

Mòrag drew a sharp breath. “This is a preposterous allegation.” Her face felt as if it was on fire. This talk had turned into a battle and Mòrag knew, the second she would turn to look at Nia she would lose. Not because her facial expression gave her away, no, but because she would definitely give in to the temptation. Nia was playing a game and Mòrag was intent on not letting her win.

“Well, then kiss me,” Nia demanded nonchalantly.

“I refuse,” Mòrag simply said and crossed her arms again.

There was a moment of silence and she was sure that Nia tried to come up with a different strategy to win this so called ‘game’. She couldn’t just straight up steal a kiss from the Ardainian, no, because that was not the rules they had set up for themselves. There was no chance Nia would get her way if Mòrag simply refused to act.

At least, from Mòrag’s perspective.

Nia on the other hand, had a secret weapon in store… She crossed her arms and leaned back with an excessive sigh, closing her eyes for a bit. “Hey, Mòrag, remember our talk in Tantal?”

The sudden change of topic puzzled the Ardainian and she raised an eyebrow. “Of course I do.”

“Good.” Nia opened an eye and looked at her with a smug smile. “I’m calling my favour in for saving your brother’s life.”

Mòrag froze when she heard that. Was Nia really calling her favour in for _that_? No, she wouldn’t possibly waste such a political bargaining chip over some silly banter – right? “For what…?” she almost didn’t dare ask.

Nia’s eyes were both open again and she looked her straight in the face. “What I want from you, Special Inquisitor Mòrag Ladair, is to kiss me.” She actually looked serious in that moment.

“A kiss in exchange for a life?” By this point, Mòrag was simply shocked. “You do realize that other people would kill for the chance of holding such power over me and the political opportunities this could grant them? Someone else could have demanded I marry them so that they worm their way into the imperial royal family.”

“Shouldn’t you be glad then that you get off the hook so easily?” Nia gave her a smile, a devilish, smug smirk. “I don’t care for politics and I have no place in them, so I wouldn’t have used that favour in whatever way you had in mind anyway.” That smirk grew a bit wider. “But stealing a kiss from the mighty Special Inquisitor? Now that’s a feat only few people can brag about.” She narrowed her eyes and looked very much like the cat that ate the canary. “ _If_ there are any at all.”

Mòrag was at a loss for words. “T-that is…!”

“You know, seeing you react like this makes me _really_ wonder how you would react to a marriage proposal,” Nia wondered aloud and put a finger on her chin, as if in deep thought. “Maybe I should go with that…” she said and sounded more innocent than she really was.

“Nia!” was the only thing Mòrag could shout and she immediately regretted losing composure at this obviously silly and not-to-be-taken-serious thought.

There was that evil smile on Nia’s face again. Mòrag was incredibly easy to fluster with these things. She should certainly keep this in mind for future reference... Deciding to put this to an end, Nia pulled her legs up and shifted her posture, so that she was kneeling on the bench and facing towards Mòrag with her body.

“I won’t budge on the kiss. You will have to comply,” she said and was surprised as to how serious, but also sincere her words had come out. Her eyes were on the same level as Mòrag’s now.

Mòrag watched her silently, part of her still flushed at the idea of a proposal, but she noticed the change in Nia’s expression. The Flesh Eater was waiting, her gold eyes looking intently at her. The air around her had changed and in the faint moonlight Mòrag couldn’t help but admire her pale skin and the soft glimmer in her hair.

“Very well,” the Ardainian woman answered after what felt like a moment of eternity. Her heart started to beat faster and she gulped, but if this was indeed Nia’s demand for saving his majesty’s life… She nervously closed the space between them and placed her lips on Nia’s.

At first, she waited, trying to gauge Nia’s reaction before she was sure she could proceed, but it didn’t take long for Nia to respond. She moved back a bit, leaving the tiniest of spaces between their mouths.

“That what you call a kiss?” she whispered, a hidden desire in those words. There was no ridicule in her tone, none of the playfulness she had emanated before. She closed the tiny gap between them again, but instead of kissing Mòrag again, Nia teased her and brushed with her lips against Mòrag’s upper lip, “I expected more from you…” She lingered on them for only so long until she began to nibble gently at them.

Mòrag stayed as she was, not only allowing, but highly enjoying the fact that Nia took the initiative. Whether she had been teasing her before or not: right now Nia wanted this. It would be stupid – and highly impolite – to not deliver a performance worth her while.

The moment she made that decision Mòrag’s hesitation was gone and she placed one hand on Nia’s hip and the other on the smaller woman’s back, pushing her body close.

Nia gasped and, surprised at Mòrag’s sudden action, she stopped what she had been doing. Mòrag did not give her the time to process what had just happened, let alone take a breath. She kissed Nia again, this time with passion and drive behind her movements. Nia’s gold eyes were wide open from the astonishment, but she closed them when she realized what was going on and placed her hands on the taller woman’s face and leaned into the kiss.

She opened her mouth a bit to let the Ardainian’s tongue in and was again surprised, this time at Mòrag’s change of pace. The Special Inquisitor took things slower now and kissed her more gently while her tongue found Nia’s.

This was not the work of a woman who had never been kissed before, yet Mòrag had reacted so defencelessly against all that teasing… Maybe she was just a natural? Though, Nia was sure by now that her other suspicion was the more likely scenario: Mòrag had been flustered at the thought of kissing her because…Heat rose inside her body at the realization.

Eventually, they parted again and Nia was glad for the opportunity to take a deep breath. Mòrag’s light brown eyes watched her attentively, waiting… There was fire in them and Nia not only saw it, but she realized that it was inside her too.

One kiss they had said, a favour for saving the emperor’s life…

Mòrag had complied and done what Nia had asked of her, but Nia wanted more. She wondered if Mòrag would bring that up and refuse to kiss her a second time if she initiated another kiss, being the cocky Inquisitor she was. Maybe. But Nia didn’t care. She moved from her spot on the bench and sat down on Mòrag’s legs.

Mòrag immediately knew what that gesture meant. There was a funny smirk on her face now: “Didn’t we say only one –“

“Shut up,” Nia interrupted her and kissed her again and Mòrag was more than happy to comply.

Nia didn’t know for how long they kissed on that bench, beneath the aurora and a starry sky, but eventually the passionate kissing turned into something gentler until Nia nestled against Mòrag’s body while being in her embrace. She had her eyes closed, enjoying the warmth the Ardainian offered to her, especially now that the night had grown cold. At some point, she felt how Mòrag’s arms loosened their hold around her and she opened her eyes again to look at the other woman, only to see that she had closed her eyes and her facial features had softened.

Mòrag had fallen asleep, despite having claimed before that she had been too wound up to do so. Maybe there had been something on her mind after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This. This right here is the whole reason I wrote this story XD  
> The original idea was for Nia to use her favour from saving Niall to make Mòrag kiss her - and now you may ask yourself: Why tf didn't you just write a oneshot?  
> Oh, I did: That story ended up being "Okay" XD
> 
> "Okay" was written with that exact premise in mind: Nia wakes up in Fonsett after they return from Elpys, finds Mòrag, talks with her, notices how Mòrag had silently watched out for her in Elpys, they get talking about favours and in an attempt to get over Rex's rejection Nia kisses Mòrag with the excuse of using her favour.  
> But as I was writing it kinda went to a different direction XD  
> I focused more on Nia's past and Elpys was kinda heavy for her with everything that happened and I just... stuck with the flow and out came that nice and comforting piece that you all know. I'm still very fond of it and wouldn't change a thing, but damn, it was definitely not what I had set out to write when I started this XD
> 
> If you noticed any parallels to "Okay" then this is the reason XD If you didn't then I am also happy because I wanted to make a distinction between those two anyway~


	11. Ardainian Wedding Traditions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Nia wakes up the next morning she realizes something...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe some of you are curious as to why the story has X additional chapters despite me saying I just wanted them to kiss after Elpys and the answer is easy: 
> 
> When I decided to focus on the whole "exchange favour for kiss" I thought it would be funny if this ended up being the result of competetive shenanigans XD Like, Mòrag pays the bill, Nia doesn't wanna hear any of it and pays her back or Mòrag gives her the pretty shell and Nia retaliates with the heart-shaped stone... 
> 
> Buuuut somehow this ended up with Mòrag more or less pulling out all the stops and basically just trolling Nia XD Which was funny in its own and I wanted to keep what I had written so far, so thats what I did~
> 
> Anyway, one of those things included one of the gemstones you find in Agate's sidequest and that idea developped into something more... a something which I found INSANELY adorable, but that scene required a postgame setting... and I didn't want to just skip there so I threw Morytha and other fun things in XD

_Crap, someone’s gonna see us_ , was the first thought Nia had when she opened her eyes the next time.

It was still early. The sun hadn’t risen yet, but it was this strange time of the morning were it wasn’t dark, even though dawn had yet to fully break.

Nia carefully freed herself from Mòrag’s arms and climbed out of her lap again. Unsure of what to do next and not wanting Mòrag to wake up and see that she was gone Nia just sat down next to her again. She didn’t mind anyone knowing that they had been spending time outside together, no one would be able to tell what they had been doing if they saw them innocently dozing off on the bench next to each other – but she wouldn’t be caught dead sitting in the Inquisitor’s lap by the likes of Zeke or Tora! And she was sure Mòrag would like to keep her reputation intact as well…

With a defeated sigh Nia leaned against the taller woman and just waited. She wasn’t tired at all. It was still cold and part of her regretted caring about what Zeke or someone else may have thought if they had seen them locked in that embrace, but now she was cold and wanted nothing more than be in the other woman’s arms again.

Nia glanced sideways at her. Mòrag had certainly gotten into things last night… though Nia couldn’t deny that it had been the same for her. She wondered how they would continue from now on, while she touched her lips absentmindedly with her fingertips.

Officially, they were “even” now. The favour of saving the emperor’s life had been repaid and they had already said back in Indol, before that unfortunate event had happened, that Mòrag would stop taunting her with those little complaisances. Now Nia wasn’t sure anymore if she wanted that to stop.

Mòrag may have teased her for that last time they had been in Leftheria but Nia _had_ grown fond of her after all. Fond enough to want to kiss her again. And again… The Gormotti blade blushed and wondered if Mòrag felt similar. They should probably talk about this when Mòrag wakes up… Nia averted her gaze as she thought about everything and suddenly an idea came to her mind.

 

“M-Mòrag?” a hesitant voice called out, which she recognised as Rex’s.

Immediately, the Special Inquisitor opened her eyes and found herself looking at Rex, who seemed to be thrown off for some reason, Zeke, with an amused smile on his face and Tora, whom she couldn’t quite read because his default expression was to smile blissfully unaware regardless of the situation. A bit to the side, Mòrag heard a chuckle. She turned around to see Nia, still in her blade form standing next to the others, who immediately stopped when Mòrag laid her eyes on her. For some reason Nia had both her hands behind her back.

There was a minute frown on Mòrag’s face now, but she focused back to Rex: “What is it?”

“Um, nothing, just wanted to wake you up. We wanted to leave for Mor Ardain first thing in the morning after all,” the boy just said. He glanced insecurely towards Nia, who snorted, and then back to Mòrag.

“Yes, of course,” Mòrag replied and immediately stood up, hands behind her back as per usual. “Let us depart then.”

“Y-yeah.” Rex’s golden eyes were focused a bit above Mòrag’s eye level. She raised an eyebrow. What was he looking at? She was tempted to reach a hand out and check if there was something on her head, when she suddenly noticed something missing in her peripheral vision.

“My lady,” Dromarch’s voice suddenly said. “What is it that you are hiding behind your back?” He inquired and curiously poked his head behind his driver.

“N-nothing!” she said defensively and tried to swat him with one of her hands.

Mòrag narrowed her eyes at her. “Nia…”

The blade’s ears perked up and she focused from Dromarch back to Mòrag. “Ehehe…”

Mòrag stretched her hand out. “Return it to me, _now_ ,” she demanded.

“Oi, come on, you can do without it for a little while!” Nia replied and made a step back.

“Nia…” Mòrag’s voice was a subtle threat now.

Nia then decided to put icing on the cake by pulling the inquisitorial hat from its lacklustre hideout behind her back and putting it on her head, on the spot right between her ears. “You gotta admit, it looks good on me, yeah?” she asked with a teasing smile.

There may have been a hint of red on Mòrag’s face now, but her expression stayed the same otherwise. “Give it to me.”

That teasing smile only grew more. “Only if you catch me!” she said and sprinted away, a hand on the metal visor to make sure it didn’t fly off her head.

Mòrag gave chase immediately, leaving the rest of the party to look after them in confusion.

“Does that still count as diplomacy…?” the young salvager wondered aloud while he rubbed the back of his head. Next to him, Dromarch only gave a baritone chuckle.

Pandoria adjusted her glasses while she followed the scene. “That looks more like _flirting_ to me,” she commented with a thoughtful frown.

“Masterpon,” Poppi then chimed in. “Should Poppi tell Mòrag that she has flower crown on head?”

It was then when Tora burst out in broad laughter.

“No, no…” Zeke answered in the Nopon’s stead, a wide grin on his face. “Let her find that one out all on her own…”

Rex crossed his arms and cocked his head. “At least we will arrive quicker at the port than anticipated?”

Zeke just laughed in response and together the group began to move so that they would catch up with their two teammates.

 

Nia knew that she couldn’t outrun Mòrag forever, but that hadn’t been the plan in the first place. She had several reasons to taunt Mòrag, one of them being that it had been just too tempting to not get back at the Ardainian for all that teasing during their first visit in Fonsett, especially when Nia had seen her sleeping all defenceless on that bench. That, and Mòrag looked so cute with the flowers adorning her head – especially when she was annoyed. Second, Brighid wasn’t there, so Nia could be sure that Mòrag at least wouldn’t set her on fire for that grave offense of stealing part of the Inquisitor’s uniform. And last but not least: Nia wanted to talk with her about last night’s happenings and this was one way to lure her away from their teammates and get some privacy.

She lowered her pace when she reached the small island that lead to Orl Cloudway and let Mòrag catch up with her.

When she saw the Ardainian approach in the distance she tried to look as non-threatening as possible – which actually did not require any effort at all. Nia stood still and tried to keep the taunting smirk off her face, which was the real challenge here.

Mòrag ceased to run when she noticed that Nia had stopped and walked up to her in a normal pace.  
When she stood in front of the blade, Mòrag assumed her default stance and stared sternly at the smaller woman. “Do you mind explaining yourself?” she asked.

Nia smiled innocently at her. “Come on, just wanted to have some fun…” she said and adjusted the hat properly.

Mòrag eyed her for a long moment until she gave in with a sigh. “You are lucky you are cute,” she said in her matter-of-factly voice and proceeded to take the hat off Nia’s head with one well-calculated movement.

Nia just chuckled, obviously not caring for that piece of clothing anymore. While it had not really been intended as compliment, hearing that Mòrag found her cute was still something she was happy about. She felt how her cheeks blushed while she watched Mòrag put her hat back on… until the Ardainian woman suddenly halted when she realized that her hat was not sitting properly in place as it should. She lifted the hat again, while she patted her head with her free hand. Nia could see her brown eyes widen at the surprise when her hand found the floral wreath.

“What…?” Mòrag took it off and stared at it curiously. When it finally dawned on her that _this_ was the reason Rex had looked so flabbergasted and that she had been running around with a floral wreath on her head this entire time, her light brown eyes wandered back to Nia, looking absolutely stunned. There was a blush on her face now, but she did not say anything, well aware that she needed a moment to compose herself, lest her speech would give her surprise away.

Nia brought her hands to her mouth, trying unsuccessfully to hide her glee.

“Did… did you make this?” Mòrag asked when she found her voice again. The Gormotti blade was utterly adorable when she tried to suppress her laughter.

Nia nodded. “Yeah.”

“And… why did you do this?” Mòrag asked and she put her hat back on her head again, while she stared at the flower crown in her other hand.

Nia shrugged. “Just thought it would look cute on you,” she replied and her lips curved into a playful, but not taunting, smirk.

Mòrag’s gaze alternated between the flowers in her hand and the Gormotti looking at her with bright gold eyes. This was… certainly not the behaviour Mòrag had expected from her after yesterday night. If she was honest with herself, Mòrag wasn’t sure what exactly she had thought would happen – but certainly not this… Nia had demanded a kiss from her and Mòrag had given it. Weren’t they even now for everything? And long before Niall almost died in Indol Nia had asked her to stop every and all shenanigans concerning her person – and now Nia was the one who started it all again?

Suddenly, Mòrag understood and as she eyed the flowers an idea came to her mind and her lips curved into a smug smile. “Did you know that these things are a wedding tradition in Mor Ardain?”

Nia blinked. “W-what?”

“Why, yes, since Mor Ardain’s vegetation isn’t exactly diverse it requires a lot of diligence to put a bridal crown together,” Mòrag went on to explain. “It is a long standing tradition since the foundation of the Empire for a man to prove his love and propose to his bride-to-be by offering her a self-made wreath.”

Nia seemed skittish all of a sudden. “Don’t get this the wrong way! I – I didn’t know that!”

“And you made such a nice one, too. Your dedication is truly palpable,” Mòrag went on as if she hadn’t heard her.

“T-that was not my intention!” Nia insisted. “G-give that back!” She reached out for the wreath in Mòrag’s hands, but Mòrag simply held it above her head. Nia was too short to reach it, even when she stood on her tiptoes and stretched her arms as much as possible. “Leftheria is filled with flowers, so your stupid Ardainian logic doesn’t apply…!!” She made a little jump, but Mòrag just held it a bit higher, an entertained smile on her lips.

When Rex and the others caught up to them Nia was still trying to get the wreath back from Mòrag. They were surprised to see that the tables had turned and that Mòrag had not only gotten her hat back, no, for some reason Nia was trying to take a hold of the wreath?

“Um, what is going on now?” Pandoria asked, well-knowing that she wouldn’t get a coherent answer out of the two.

Nia jumped when she heard the voice behind her back and turned around with a face redder than a tomato. “Nothing!!”

“Indeed,” Mòrag agreed with an innocent smile.

“Do you guys… need another moment to clear this up?” Rex asked carefully.

“Don’t worry about it, Rex,” Mòrag said and placed the wreath on Nia’s head which made her wince in surprise. “I think the situation is defused now.” She smiled charmingly and stroked one of Nia’s ears when she took her hands back.

Nia turned back to her, unable to come up with a witty response.

“Shall we continue?” Mòrag asked and, without waiting for an answer, she went ahead. Rex, Zeke and Tora stared between the two women. Eventually, there was a collective shrug and the boys and their blades followed after Mòrag, except Dromarch who stood by his driver with an amused smile.

“Is everything alright, my lady?” he inquired.

Nia just stared after the group. “I…” She patted the flowers on her head, trying to figure out what had just happened. “Pretty sure I had a plan… and pretty sure it just got turned upside down.” She turned to the white tiger with a puzzled frown “Do you know anything about Ardainian wedding traditions…?”

 


	12. We Don't Know

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Since Nia didn't get to talk with Mòrag about certain things, she seeks the Inquisitor out on the titanship instead...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another short titanship scene - I just really like those XD And they needed to talk anyway~

After eating dinner with the others Mòrag retreated to her room on the titanship and tried to write her weekly report towards his majesty. This proved not as easy as on other days though, especially not when she considered certain private details that had occurred in that time span. Mòrag’s thoughts drifted away and without Brighid around she had no one to subtly reprimand her when she began daydreaming.

Nia… Nia must have known that her teasing today would have just invited a retaliation from her side, yet she had gone ahead and had so obviously tried to mess with her. If any conclusions could be drawn from this, meaning this hadn’t been just a fleeting fancy, then this could have meant only a few things… Mòrag placed her head in her hand, while the other stopped writing.

Suddenly there was a knock on her door. Mòrag startled and straightened her posture, before she called her visitor in: “Please, come in.”

She heard the door open and close again, and when Mòrag stood up and turned around to face her visitor, she saw Nia. The Gormotti had her arms crossed and seemed serious… or – considering the way she pursed her lips – sulky.

“How can you guys have a tradition based on the fact that Mor Ardain is a wasteland and doesn’t have many flowers to spare, if Mor Ardain used to be about as lush as any other titan when the empire was founded?” she inquired, her long ears twitching.

Mòrag actually had to suppress a snort when she heard that. Of all the things that needed addressing and could only be spoken about in private… “Well, the explanation for that is quite simple actually…” she began and placed her hands behind her back.

Nia raised an eyebrow.

“I was, how do you say…?” She gave Nia a smile. “Messing with you.”

Those golden eyes opened wide. Then she frowned and bend forward. “You’re really leaning into that marriage thing, aren’t ya?”

“I saw an opportunity and took it,” Mòrag replied.

“Hm, is that so…” Nia straightened her posture again and there was a moment of silence in which they both eyed each other.

Nia was the first to look away. “So… what is this?” she began and her cheeks reddened. “Serious? Casual?”

Now it was Mòrag’s turn to be surprised. “Come again…?” she asked hesitantly.

“Well, how do I put this…?” Nia sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. “Our kiss. I had a feeling you _really_ enjoyed it and…” The red colour deepened and emphasized her face markings. “I did too,” she confessed.

Mòrag just stared at her. She had not been prepared for Nia to so bluntly talk about whatever was happening between them. Her heart started to beat faster and she gulped. “Let us sit down first, shall we?” she suggested and gestured towards the bed.

Nia nodded and both proceeded to sit down next to each other.

Again they fell silent. Nia shifted impatiently on the bed, moving her legs back and forth in a kicking motion. She could imagine that Mòrag had to consider her answer carefully, what with being the Inquisitor and all. And if Nia was being honest, she wouldn’t be able to answer that question straight away either. Nia couldn’t tell how deep her own feelings ran or whether she wanted a serious relationship or not. Letting Mòrag answer first was almost unfair, because Nia would be willing to try either option.

Eventually, Mòrag let out a little sigh and Nia stopped fiddling. She looked expectantly towards the Ardainian and was caught by surprise when Mòrag placed a hand on hers.

“I really like you, Nia.” Her voice was low, but sincere. “That’s the only thing I can say for certain.” She didn’t look at the smaller woman while she said this.

Nia’s golden eyes trailed from their hands towards Mòrag’s face. There was an apologetic expression on the other woman and Nia could imagine that Mòrag was neither used to giving such vague answers nor did she like them. “That it? You don’t know?”

Mòrag only nodded in response.

For some reason Nia felt relief when she saw that. She placed a hand on the one that held hers, causing Mòrag to look at her. Nia gave her a smile. “It’s okay. I don’t know either,” she admitted. “But…” She came a little closer. “We can just try and see then… right?” she suggested and squeezed the other woman’s hand gently.

Mòrag examined her for a few long moments: That shy smile, the red hue against the white markings, the soft expression in her golden eyes… “Right,” she agreed and found herself smiling as well. Then she leaned in close and kissed the smaller woman softly, unable to resist her anymore.

Nia reciprocated and it caught Mòrag off-guard when she took the lead and pushed her back on the mattress, while her kisses grew ever so passionate…


	13. The Weight He Carries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After their fall to Morytha Nia finds Zeke and Pandy, while Mòrag lands in Dromarch's care. Nia has to deal with the idiot's antics while Mòrag tries to convince Dromarch that she loves all her friends 'equally'... Tora on the other hand has completely different problems...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another shot at the "group gets separated" trope :D  
> Not a lot of shipping going on in this one, but the moment I came up with the groupings and especially how the Nia/Zeke/Pandy triangle would work out I couldn't help myself XD Nia curses quite a lot inwardly~
> 
> The chapter's title is an obvious parody of the game's chapter 7 XD Who is he? What weight does he carry? Just... just read it XD

Morytha was a desolate place.

A desolate city beneath a desolate sky.

Nia saw broken buildings surrounding her, empty and broken streets and piles of rubble from the very same broken buildings. Nia had seen creatures with glowing parts on their bodies, akin to a core crystal, and a humanoid shape and others who seemed to have been made entirely of metal. She had mostly kept her distance and passed them when she was out of their sight; a strategy that had proved successful so far. 

She had to find the others. They had gotten separated when the ruins in the Cliffs of Morytha had been destroyed during the fight between the two artifices. As a blade, she easily survived the fall, especially with her ability to build a barrier out of ether, but as for the rest… Her fellow blades would be fine – if their drivers were unharmed, that is.

She felt her heart clench at the thought. No, she had to think positive: all blades were able to erect ether barriers, so, if they had been nearby their mortal friends they had surely kept them safe. Nia was probably just unlucky to have landed apart from the others. Yes, that must have been it. The others were fine… they were a sturdy bunch after all: Zeke was a Blade Eater, Rex was with Pyra, Tora is a Nopon, they seemingly survived everything anyway, and Mòrag… surely, she was with Brighid, right?

Nia tried to remember the fight, but the only thing her memory offered was that moment when Malos had been about to obliterate her very existence with his sword and how Mòrag had thrown herself into harm’s way to protect her. Mòrag was the only reason Nia was still alive and she knew, she should be grateful for that, but on the other hand she couldn’t stop thinking about how much of a bloody idiot Mòrag had been! This sword could have easily dissolved her! And not only had she tried to deflect it with ordinary blade weapons, no, she had her _back_ turned towards the enemy. Had not even looked Malos in the face!

Instead her light brown eyes had directly met Nia’s and Nia had seen the determination in them, the unbending will to protect… _She risked her life just for me…_

Mòrag and Brighid had fought separately. It was a fact Nia couldn’t possibly deny.  
“Mòrag…” She brought a hand up, above her heart. “Please be okay…”

If that situation had made Nia realize one thing, it was the fact that she did not want to lose Mòrag.

It was a scary thought and Nia tried to fight it with another strong emotion: anger.  
“Stupid idiot, I will give her a piece of my mind as soon as I see her…! Trying to look cool with her swords crossed behind her neck… who _does_ that?” Because talking herself into a rage was better than being scared.

Her ear twitched when she heard a few stones rolling down a pile of rubble. Alarmed, she turned around – and saw two pairs of legs and a lightbulb-shaped tail sticking out of the debris and wiggling helplessly.

Nia halted and narrowed her eyes. “You can’t be bloody serious…” 

* * *

_A moment of hesitation._ _That had been all that was needed for her to fail._

_Nia had fallen to the ground and Malos had raised his all-destroying weapon above her, ready to slay the nuisance with the restoring powers._

_It took Mòrag only a split second, a fleeting doubt of “what if I don’t make it?”, in which Malos had already acted and stabbed the Flesh Eater through her heart. When he drew his sword out of her chest he left a black void behind, which ate away at the rest of her petite body until she disappeared…_

“Nia!”

Mòrag opened her eyes and reflexively wanted to stand up, but a sharp sting on her right side stopped her and she moaned from the pain. She fell right back again and she was surprised that her head did not hit the cold ground. She blinked twice before she processed the fluffy white fur in her peripheral vision.

“Lady Mòrag,” a soothing baritone voice said. “You are finally awake.”

“Dromarch…” Mòrag relaxed the instant she recognized his voice. “Yes, I am…” she confirmed and took a deep breath. There was the pain again, coming from her chest.   
 _This feels like a broken rib…_ Mòrag thought with a sigh. Not her first one. She tried moving again, this time more careful to gauge the severity of her injuries.

Dromarch curiously turned his head around. “Lady Mòrag, are you injured?”

“It would seem so,” the Ardainian answered with somewhat of a sour expression when she noticed that she couldn’t lift her right arm – aside from the severe pain accompanied by that attempt. “A broken rib and right arm and several bruises I’d say.”

“Well, we did fall from a rather steep height…” Dromarch commented thoughtfully. “Close your eyes and give me a moment, Lady Mòrag.”

“Very well,” she just replied and did as she was told. She felt Dromarch’s soothing ether aura and relaxed. The pain slowly faded from her body, as if the calm flow of a stream carried it away. Mòrag tentatively tried to move her arm again when she felt the ether leave her body and was relieved to see that it worked. “Thank you.”

“It was nothing.”

She exhaled and allowed herself to properly rest on Dromarch’s soft side for a moment. Mòrag opened her eyes again and watched the storm raging above them. She would have never thought that it was possible to fall beneath the Cloud Sea – and survive. She figured it had to do something with the stark winds howling above them, and maybe Dromarch had a hand in helping soften her fall as well.

She wondered how her friends were doing and the memory from her nightmare made her anxious. Nia was fine. Dromarch was here, so she was still alive. And if she was alive she had healed herself and was probably looking for the others. Her heartbeat slowed down again when she rationalized the situation. Yes, Nia was alive and well. She had to.

“Dromarch?” she called the tiger.

“Yes, Lady Mòrag?”

“Can you feel Nia’s presence nearby?”

Dromarch held still for a moment, eyes and ears attentive, until he nodded slowly. “It is weak, but I can feel our resonance. She must be a bit further away.”

Mòrag nodded. “Good, that way we have a clue as to where to search.”

Dromarch gave her a nod as well. He eyed the Ardainian woman resting on his body curiously, while his tail swayed slowly back and forth. “Lady Mòrag, I must thank you,” he began after a while.

She seemed surprised and turned to face him. “Thank me?”

“But of course. You deflected a blow from Malos’ sword, which would have otherwise been deadly for my lady,” he explained.

“I see…” Mòrag leaned back again. “There is no need, I would have done this for all my comrades.”

“Truly, yours is a protective soul,” Dromarch agreed with a little smile. His tail stopped moving around and his smile grew a bit wider, showing off some of his fangs. “Though that doesn’t explain why you woke up shouting my lady’s name.”

Mòrag clearly tensed at the mention and her eyes opened wide. “Oh, well that…” She coughed into her hand, trying to hide her awkwardness by pretending to clear her throat. She could see now why he got along so well with Brighid.

His blue eyes watched her expectantly. At least he waited for her to speak, Brighid would have gone in for the kill immediately if she had seen this opening. “I-it was nothing. I was just dreaming about the very part of the fight you just thanked me for. Though in my dream I did not make it…” she explained and the mere image tugged at her heart, despite knowing that it wasn’t true.

Dromarch took notice of the sudden gloom surrounding the driver. “You care so much about her that even the mere possibility of failing to protect her haunts your very dreams,” he noticed.

She gave him a sideways glance and immediately turned away when she noticed his piercing blue eyes scrutinizing her.

“My lady is very lucky to have found someone who loves her so much,” the tiger then said and couldn’t hide the smug grin when the woman’s cheeks changed their colour.

“D-don’t be ridiculous, Dromarch. I love all my friends equally,” Mòrag insisted. “Nia is one of them, but so are Rex and Tora and…” Her gaze flattened when the image of the Tantalese prince crossed her mind. “And…” There was a clear aversion on her face when his stupid grin appeared before her mind’s eye. “And… um…”

“Zeke?” Dromarch guessed.

That light brown gaze got flatter. “Yes, that one…” she slowly agreed and crossed her arms while she tried not to huff.

“Clearly, you love them all _equally_ …” The tiger chuckled again and there may have been another cough from the inquisitor.

“I must’ve gotten a concussion if his name slipped my mind…”

“I wonder if there are things that would also slip your mouth with that injury of yours….” Dromarch thought aloud and his tail started moving amusedly back and forth again.

“Are you trying to take advantage of me while I am in this dire state?” Mòrag asked, a smile tugging at her lips now.

“I would never,” Dromarch insisted, but she couldn’t help but hear some sarcasm in his voice. “Even if this would make an ideal opportunity to ask about the contents of the supposedly ‘short’ talks my lady always seeks you out for in the evenings. You must be getting quite side-tracked to be talking until the next morning…”

There was a stutter and a cough and suddenly Mòrag was on her feet again. “I believe it’s best if we start searching for the others now,” she said while taking on her usual posture.

“Is that so…” Dromarch just replied while he also got on his feet. He walked up next to the tall woman who suddenly seemed much focused at a particular nothing in the distance. “Are you sure you got enough rest?”

“I am fine, thank you.”

Another chuckle. “I merely asked because I was worried about your ‘concussion’.” This earned him an indignant expression to which he just responded with a knowing look. “You can ride my back if you don’t feel too well.”

Mòrag eyed him for a long while. Maybe he wasn’t so different from Brighid after all…

* * *

There was a roaring thunder and a terrifying howl that slowly faded away.

"Haha!! You should have known better than challenge the mighty Zekenator!” the prince of idiots shouted with a conceited laugh. With him was Pandoria, who mimicked his every movement, while their poor enemy dissipated into ether.

Somewhere in the background Nia glared at him. “ _You_ were the one that challenged him…” she mumbled. Why the bloody hell was this idiot wasting his energy? Was he not aware of the fact that they had dropped from the sky, landed in the abandoned ruins of an ancient civilisation, got separated from the others and on top of that, with no idea how they would make it back??

Why in the ever-loving name of the Architect was he picking a fight with the monstrosities down here?!

“Shellhead! Let’s keep moving, we _don’t_ have time for this!” she yelled.

He turned to look at her, an oblivious expression on his face. “What’s that Furry Ears? You got an appointment here or what?”

Nia’s glare became more intense. “How about finding the others? They could be injured, you know!”

Zeke went back up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sure Mòrag is fine, don’t worry,” he said with a… strange fatherly look? It creeped Nia out and she evaded his grasp by taking a step back.

“I – I wasn’t talking about Mòrag!” Unfortunately, her words were undermined by the fact that her face had turned red at the mention of the Special Inquisitor.

“Of couuurse not.” Pandoria rolled her eyes. Apart from the obvious _something_ the two of them had, Mòrag was the only one in their group who was in real danger of being hurt seriously from such a fall. She tiptoed towards Nia and placed a hand on her shoulder as well. “So, you and Mòrag, huh?”

“What the hell did I _just_ say?!” Nia yelled and her hands were balled into fists now.

Zeke approached her again and gave her a nod of approval. “Can’t blame you, Furry Ears.” He poked the Flesh Eater’s side with his elbow. “Mòrag is rather good-looking, ey?”

She stared at him and then back to Pandoria who grinned mischievously.

How the **fuck** had the conversation derailed like that?   
“This is _not_ the bloody point!”

“Anyway…” The duo let go of her and Zeke placed a hand beneath his chin, as if he was in deep thought. “We could find her faster if we could obliterate those enemies more effectively, right?”

Nia narrowed her eyes at him. “No.” She crossed her arms and huffed. “We could just not fight against everything we see.”

He simply laughed at that. “Were would be the fun in that?”

“Fun?!” He ears were perked straight up in anger.

“Yes, Furry Ears, fun. I’m sure you’ve heard of it before.”

Nia was speechless. She tried to open her mouth, to say _anything_ , preferably curse him out, but she was too stunned by his idiocy to get any coherent word out. So she just stood there, mouth and eyes wide open, unable to reply.

“Anyway, I have a proposition Furry Ears,” Zeke continued, blissfully unaware how close to being murdered he was. “You are a blade, right?”

Her look turned into a glare. “Noooo, my wonderful _idiot_ friend, I’m just an overgrown bunnit.”

Pandoria couldn’t help but snort when she heard that. “Watch out, with those ears he may believe you.”

Nia glanced towards her, torn between laughing and despairing at the notion.

“I had this idea: you can choose your driver freely, because you are a Flesh Eater, right?”

Nia shrugged. “I guess… What of it, Shellhead?”

“How about we combine our powers then?” he suggested.

She raised an eyebrow. “Come again?”

“I could use you _and_ Pandoria in battle,” Zeke elaborated.

Nia wasn’t sure she understood.

“Imagine it, Furry Ears! The glory of using two swords at once! The combined power of electricity and water! Our enemies would cower in fear!”

Oh. So that’s what he was after: abusing her scimitar and her water-elemental powers to show off.

“With you being a Flesh Eater, you and Pandy can both use your arts at the same time to power me up,” he put an arm around her neck and gestured with the other in a wide motion in front of them. Nia was not sure what exactly he wanted to encompass with that gesture, but something told her it didn’t matter and that Zeke was doing this for theatrical purpose anyway. Either way, she remained looking unimpressed. “Can you feel the power, Furry Ears?”

Her ears flattened and she finally uncrossed her arms to swat his away from her shoulder. “Forget it.”

“What?! Come on, it’s perfect! That way we don’t have to fear anything!”

“I’m starting to fear for your sanity…” she mumbled. Then she frowned and raised her voice: “How the hell do you wanna fight with two swords? Not only do you not have any experience dual-wielding, but yours is a colossal zweihänder! Can you even carry it in one hand?!”

“The Zekenator can carry everything!” the Tantalese just answered and confidently knocked with his fist against his chest.

Pandoria leaned into Nia’s ear: “Including the weight of his stupidity; you gotta admit, that _is_ impressing.”

“Ugh,” Nia groaned and then face-palmed. Why? Why did she have to stumble upon _him_ out of all the people? “You will not catch me dead doing this stupid shit.”

Little did she know that the tide would soon turn against her favour when her ears picked up a very faint “mehmehmeh” somewhere in the distance…

* * *

 

“Meh, meh…. Nice monster, good monster…” Tora tried to suppress the urge to make any sudden movement when he found himself surrounded by six Guldos. He had broken out in a cold sweat and tried to keep up his smile to appear as non-threatening and calm as he could – even though he wasn’t sure if those creatures were even able to read his behaviour at all. They looked barely human, with estranged limbs. Parts of their heads and chests glowed and the light creeped him out because it reminded him of a core crystal’s glow.

He had tried to look for his friends and had come along a collapsed roadway. Just when he had reached a dead end, in the form of a wired fence that did not allow him to go further, these creatures had appeared all of a sudden.

“T-Tora not tasty…” he said, unsure if it even was a good idea to talk. He glanced around him, but there was no one familiar. “P-Poppi?” His voice was only a whisper.

Those creatures had stopped their alien movements and seemed to just stare at him now.

Behind him was a wired fence – which he could climb, but it didn’t lead anywhere. He would just drop down and get further lost, maybe even jump into another of those monsters’ dens.

He could try and run away towards the direction he had come from. But those things had appeared so suddenly… maybe they were able to outspeed him the second he began to run?

Standing still unnerved him. While the Guldos did the same, he could not say for sure that things would stay like that. He moved a tiny step ahead.  
No reaction.  
Gaining a little bit more confidence he made another step forward, this time normal-sized. Was it his imagination or had their heads turned towards him?

He gulped, but he saw no other choice. He took the Drill Shield from his back and held it out in front of his body. Then he ran as fast as he could.

This was when the Guldos started moving. Their motions were quick and jagged and they reached out and tried to slash him.

“Meh!!” Tora only yelled while he evaded as many of them as he could and beat the ones in his way with his shield.

Suddenly, he heard a horrifying howl so loud that it stunned not only him, but the Guldos around him too. He started to sweat even more and while he desperately did _not_ want to look behind him to see what had actually emitted this otherworldly scream, he could not help it.

Another one of those monsters came crawling from below that metal fence. It was at least twice as big as the ones that had surrounded him. He felt how all the blood left his head.  
“MEHHH!! This straight up nightmare!!” he yelled to no one in particular.

The only effect this had was to draw the attention back to himself, which he realized quick and resumed his original plan of running as fast as he could.  
“Mehmehmeh!”

Closing his eyes and hoping the Drill Shield would do its magic, may have not been the best idea though…

Something grabbed him by the wing and raised him from the ground. “Mehmeh!” When he opened his eyes again he found himself face to face with the Guldo that had caught him and he screamed even louder and more frantic than before. He struggled to free himself with whatever limbs he could spare and tried to hit the Guldo with his shield, but for some reason it seemed strangely unaffected.

Seeing its face up close was even worse than Tora imagined.

And as if that wasn’t enough his nightmares got fuelled even further when that thing suddenly started to bleed out of each body opening. “MEH!!!”

Suddenly, Tora found himself on the ground again. The monster had let go of him? Looking around, they all had suffered from the same fate and were now lying on the ground.

“What are you doing?? Run!” he heard a familiar voice shout.

He would recognize that angry voice anywhere! Tora turned around and his hopes got confirmed when he saw Nia standing in the distance, her hand still pointed at the Guldos. Zeke and Pandoria were behind her, ready to wreck some enemies.

Tora needed a moment to collect himself, then he ran towards them as fast as he could.

“Meh!! Tora finally found friends!” the Nopon exclaimed happily and immediately tackled Nia to the ground. “Tora so glad!” He gave her a big hug with one of his wings, the other still held the shield, and nuzzled his furry face against hers. “Tora owes Nia life!”

“No, thanks. I’ve seen it and I’m not impressed,” Nia only said and a moment later she shoved him away.

“Uh, guys…?” Pandoria’s voice chimed up.

Nia got on her feet again. “What? I dealt with them.” She gave Zeke a flat stare, while she placed her hands on her hips. “See? No reason to go with your proposed flashy antics.”

“M-meh…” Tora’s voice had deflated all of a sudden again.

Nia heard a howl behind her and her eyes opened wide from the surprise. “Oh, you gotta be shitting me…!” She turned around and her suspicion got confirmed: regenerative powers. The Guldos were back on their feet again and the big one let out another howl, which gave them enough of an idea of its strength. “ _Why_?!”

“It’s just a wild guess…” Pandoria said and for some reason she was poking out behind Zeke’s back now. “But it could be those core-crystal-like things on their bodies?” 

Nia agreed with her that this was most likely the reason for this skill. For a second, she felt validated with her initial approach of avoiding those things when she had wandered Morytha alone.

There was a shine in Zeke’s eye now. “Oh, Pandy, wouldn’t that mean that we have to completely obliterate them with one super strong move?”

Nia grimaced. She glanced towards Tora and wondered if she could avoid this if she made _him_ her driver for a little while… Unfortunately though, she knew that he did not have the aptitude to drive a real blade and that meant she couldn’t force herself upon him. She frowned. _That sounded wrong…_

“Chop-chop, Furry Ears,” Zeke said and drew his mighty Big Bang Edge.

She crossed her arms and huffed. “No way! I’m sure if Tora and I weaken them first you can finish them off with one of your usual moves –“

The big one howled again and this time the six small ones joined him. One by one they started lunging at them now.

“See, Nia, I’d normally agree with you…” Pandoria began. “Buuuut taking them out one by one doesn’t seem like the best strategy here…” She pointed her flat hands towards her diver and channelled her ether into him, while he rushed forward to meet the first two monsters with his sword.

Nia tried her luck by taking another one on and Tora helped her, but its wounds did regenerate mere moments after being hit and it became apparent that physical attacks would not be much effective against this type of foe. The other problem was that the ones they didn’t attack did not stand idly around until their comrades were finished off. Soon enough, both of them had to jump aside to avoid incoming hits, which in turn gave the Guldos the time to regenerate whatever damage they had inflicted on their bodies.

“Ugh, fine!” Nia finally said, when she had put some distance between herself and the foe with a somersault. “Shellhead!” she called Zeke and when he turned her attention to her, she threw her scimitar at him.

He caught the weapon with ease and to her surprise, he actually was able to wield the Big Bang Edge with only one hand.  
“You won’t regret that, Furry Ears!” he announced with a smirk, as he held both swords confidently.

There was a huff, and just like Pandoria Nia pointed her hands at him to boost his healing capabilities. Pandoria’s arts gave him the ability to attack faster and use his arts more often, while Nia’s enabled him to heal himself after dealing a successful hit – or sometimes even after getting hit.

It was a very advantageous combination for Zeke. “Hahaha, that’s it! I can feel the power!”  
He cut and slashed through his enemies as if they were nothing, and even if he got hit, he got healed soon thereafter. In short: he felt invincible.

Nia only stared flatly at her idiot of a temporary-driver. This probably wouldn’t have been nearly as bad if he didn’t look so freaking ecstatic… “Would you stop fooling around and take them out?!”

“More power!” he demanded.

Nia suppressed whatever insult she had on the tip of her tongue and did as she was told. Pandoria, knowing her driver, did not need an extra order to follow suit.

Zeke held both swords upright in front of his face and through the power of his blades’ ether channelled their elements into them. Both swords got first surrounded with an ever-moving vortex of water and then they became charged with electricity.  
“Divine Sonic Thunderslash Swords!” Then he plunged the two weapons into the ground, which triggered the elements to release in a semi-circular shock wave in front of him.

The smaller Guldos had disappeared by the time the chaos cleared up and the big one laid on the ground, half of its body incinerated.

Zeke let out a victorious laugh.

Somewhere in the background Nia’s ears flattened while she summoned her scimitar back. “I feel so used…”

The Tantalese driver then turned back to Nia. “Behold the power of the mighty Zekenator!”

“Meh!” Tora exclaimed. “Big one still moving!!”

“Huh?” Zeke turned around, and while the Guldo had not yet regenerated, it had still managed to get off the ground and stand in a towering motion behind him.

“Wild Roar!” A blast of ether came raining down from somewhere above them, which caused enough damage for the Guldo to dissipate and more moments later, before its ether particles had all disappeared, Dromarch had jumped down from one of the surrounding buildings and stood in its place now. Riding on his back was Mòrag, Whipswords drawn.

Zeke blinked once when he noticed the tiger and woman standing in front of him. He needed a moment to realize what had happened, but then he just grinned and gave Mòrag a thumbs up. “This performance was worthy of the Zekenator!”

Mòrag frowned at him, then she sighed and sheathed her swords again.

“More friends!” Tora made an excited little dance on the spot, while Pandoria gave a cheer too: “You are okay!”

Nia on the other hand gawked at the two, not believing that the two persons that mattered the most to her were alive and well and had just appeared together from seemingly out of nowhere.  
“Mòrag!” She approached the duo, slow at first, but then she didn’t bother hiding her excitement and ran past Zeke and towards them.

“Nia,” the Ardainian called her and smiled softly. Thank the Architect, she was okay…

Nia approached quickly and Mòrag could see her golden eyes glistening. Tears prickled the corner of her own eyes as well and her heart felt so light all of a sudden, now that she saw that Nia was alive and well. Nia stopped in front of her, panting heavily from the short sprint.

“Mòrag…!” All of a sudden there was a frown on the Flesh Eater’s face and she put her hands on her hips with an accusing stare. “What the bloody hell were you thinking when you threw yourself in front of Malos’ sword?!”

Mòrag blinked. “W-what…?” was the only thing she managed to utter, Nia’s angry reaction coming as a clear surprise.

“He could have dissolved your body, for Architect’s sake!” Nia raged on. “I can’t heal what’s not there anymore!!”

Dromarch only chuckled and moved his head back towards his rider. “It seems like my lady was very worried about you too, Lady Mòrag.”

Mòrag looked at him, his blue eyes shining and his mouth forming a smug smile. There was a faint blush on her face now.

Only then did Nia notice that Mòrag was riding on Dromarch and raised an eyebrow. “Why are you riding on Dromarch, anyway?”

That blush on the Inquisitor’s face deepened.


	14. On Top of the World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Looking down at their home from far above the sky, Nia has a confession to make.

“Wow, would you look at that…” an awestruck voice whispered.

The Orbital Station was eerily silent. They knew that no one had entered it in many, many years. Yet, everything seemed new, as if it had been built just yesterday. It was unsettling. What had happened here?  
Only little light reached the inside, its source, from what Nia could tell, was sunlight being reflected off Alrest’s surface.

Alrest.

Everyone’s home.

And here she was, looking at it from a point of view her imagination could have never come up with, even in her wildest dreams.

The glass floor unsettled her. It made her nervous to stand on a transparent surface and see nothing but space and her home, an unimaginable amount of titan peds away. Part of her wanted to walk back where the ground wasn’t made of glass, to settle her anxious heart and help her fear of heights, but the other part was too intrigued by the sight offered to her.

The artifices were fighting relentlessly above their home. For what exactly she couldn’t say. Or for how long. And yet, none of them had ever known about this war. Had lived blissfully unaware between the clouds.

For some reason this point of their journey felt final. Her heart grew heavy. It was nuts, just nuts. The fact that they had even managed to make it up here… Would their descent be as easy? Would they even _live_ to make it back again?

“Nia.” A hand found its way on her shoulder and she tore eyes from the sight below and looked at the woman by her side now.

“The others want to go on,” Mòrag informed her.

Nia said nothing, watched her silently with her golden eyes for a few moments. “Just give me another minute or two,” she eventually said when she lowered her gaze again.

“Of course,” Mòrag simply replied, but she stayed patiently by her side.

There was a moment of silence.

Hesitantly, Nia reached her hand out and grabbed Mòrag’s.

Mòrag diverted her attention from the world below them and looked at Nia with a surprised expression in her eyes.

“Mòrag, there is something I wanted to tell you…” the Gormotti began and her grip grew a little tighter. If she didn’t say it now, she may never get another moment. “When we talked on the titanship towards Mor Ardain we both weren’t sure about the nature of our relationship, right?”

Mòrag nodded. “Yes.”

There was a tiny smile tugging at the corner of Nia’s mouth. “When we got separated in Morytha I realized something,” she continued and still did not dare to look the taller woman in the face. “I don’t want to lose you. Not now, not ever…” Slowly, she raised her gaze and there was a timid, nervous expression on her face. “I-it’s not just something casual to me…” she confessed. Then she gulped and looked away again and she felt tears prickling the corners of her eyes. Why was she getting so sentimental all of a sudden?

Mòrag’s hand let go of her and the sensation of sudden cold in her palm got more to Nia than she expected.   
“I also have something to tell you, Nia,” Mòrag said and her hands were searching something in her pockets. “Or rather, give…” she corrected herself when she pulled something out of one of them and presented it to the smaller woman.

It was the Ardainian bear carving she had admired so long ago, when they had first come to Mor Ardain.

It seemed so out of place amidst this eerie orbital station that Nia couldn’t help but laugh, while a tear accidentally escaped her eye. “Mòrag, what the hell? I expected something entirely different,” she managed to say and quickly rubbed the tear away with the back of her hand. Then she took the bear in her hands and examined it. “When did you get this?”

“Before we departed for Morytha, when we had a bit of idle time because the ship hadn’t been prepared yet.”

This answer actually surprised Nia, because she could have bet that Mòrag had just gone behind her back during their first interaction in that shop, being the smug Inquisitor she was. “You actually remembered that I liked those?” she asked and lifted her gaze to look at Mòrag again.

Mòrag gave her a little smile, then she nodded.

“Aww, shucks, you can be really cute, do you know that?” There was a defeated smile on her face now. “Even though _I_ am the one who actually owes you, after you saved me from Malos.”

The Ardainian’s smile grew a bit wider. “Does it really matter at this point?”

Nia shook her head. “Guess not…” She rubbed the back of her head sheepishly, while she lowered her gaze once more. “Though I sometimes feel like I could have been a bit nicer to you when we reunited in Morytha…” she admitted with an awkward chuckle.

Mòrag chuckled as well. “It’s alright. I heard that’s how you show affection.”

The Gormotti stopped in her tracks, hand still on the back of her head. “Who told you that?” she asked while a blush crept up her face.

The question made Mòrag want to laugh. “Does it really matter at this point?” she asked again. As if Nia wouldn’t be able to find this out if she stopped to actually think about it for more than a second.

Nia shook her head. “Not really,” she admitted and finally put that hand down. She looked back at the carving in her hand and a loving smile appeared on her face.

It was this very sight that tempted Mòrag to pull her into a hug, catching the smaller woman off-guard. Nia blushed even more when she found her head resting on the Ardainian’s chest, but she felt safe in that embrace and surrounded by those strong arms. She closed her eyes and returned the hug with one arm, while the other held the wooden figure close to her chest.

“It isn’t casual for me either,” Mòrag then whispered into Nia’s ear.

The Gormotti smiled contentedly. Part of her had always known. She snuggled close and promised to herself that she would do everything in her might to make sure they made it back to Alrest unharmed.


	15. Rapprochement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One year later Nia and Mòrag find themselves in Torigoth again for some "official" business~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Idk what hit me you guys, but I've never felt so happy while writing a chapter?? Going from a certain part onward I was just over the moon XD (I'm sure you guys will be able to tell which one~)  
> I'm really glad I took it all the way to this ending, hope everyone reading this will have as much fun as I had writing!

It was a beautiful sunny day in Torigoth.

Nia stood by the bridge in front of the chief’s residence and watched a trio of Gormotti children fish by the pond. Though only one of them had a fishing rod, and they mostly talked as they waited for a fish to take the bait. It was funny to see them get their hopes up, whenever the line straightened a bit. Edgar, the chief himself, was sitting on the nearby stairs and read through a newspaper. His lips curved into an amused smirk whenever the children “aww”ed when their catch escaped. Occasionally he raised his head from his reading to watch the trio and when he looked around and saw Nia he gave her a friendly wave and she in turn waved back.

Officially, she and Mòrag had been sent here on business by Niall, to investigate those rumours of Ardainian and Gormotti not getting along with each other again, but Nia knew that was just a ruse. She personally had asked Niall to send them to Gormott, because she had wanted Mòrag to take some time off, for at least a couple of days, and that would never happen if she stayed around in Alba Cavanich and helped out with rebuilding Mor Ardain after the titan almost died a year ago prior to Elysium’s making.

As expected, the so-called official business hadn’t taken up a lot of time and Nia had asked her if they could stay a little longer, because she hadn’t seen her home country in such a long while. Mórag had been convinced in a matter of seconds and Nia liked to think that the sweet smile she had used while asking had been the reason for that.

Now Mòrag had slipped away, saying that she had to take care of a little errand, and Nia could only welcome it. She had used the time to change into the yellow dress she had purchased earlier this day. She had been a bit self-conscious about buying it, because she hadn’t worn anything besides her suit in such a long while, but she wanted to ask Mòrag something very important today, so her old jumper wouldn’t cut it!

With a dreamy sigh, she rested her arms on the pole of the bridge, while she chuckled at the children struggling to reel a fish in. Edgar had joined them now and tried to give them advice on how to do this.

Suddenly, someone snuck up on her and placed their gloved hands on Nia’s eyes. “Guess who?” an amused voice asked and Nia couldn’t help but grin.

“Gee, I wonder who that could _possibly_ be?” Nia replied amusedly. She put her hands on Mòrag’s and pulled them off her face. She turned around to look at the Ardainian standing behind her and Mòrag gave her a smug smile.

“ _This_ is how you sneak up on people.”

Nia huffed. “You don’t have to bring that up _every time_ , y’know,” she said while she crossed her arms with a pout.

Mòrag laughed softly. She just couldn’t take that sulky face serious. “I see you changed into your new dress,” she noticed.

Nia nodded and shyly turned towards the pond again. “You like it?” she asked while she nervously brushed some strands of hair back.

“Very much,” Mòrag answered, placed her arm around Nia’s hip and pulled her close to give her a kiss on the cheek. “You look especially cute in it.”

Nia blushed and stubbornly tried to keep her gaze on the pond. Incidentally she noticed that the boy who had held the fishing rod had given it to Edgar so that he could show them properly how it’s done. “D-did you finish your errand?”

“I did,” Mòrag answered and let go of her. There was a moment of silence and Nia turned around again.

“What was it anyway?” the Gormotti asked, a bit curious as to how the sudden silence had come to be.

“Well, that…” Mòrag glanced sideways, while she fixed her hat up. Nia raised an eyebrow. This was Mòrag’s nervous habit. She _always_ did that when something got her flustered. Nia had had more than enough time and patience to test this out in the past year, so there was no mistaking it.

“What is it? Tell me!” Nia urged her, genuinely excited and curious rather than being forceful and pushy. She saw Mòrag hesitantly place a hand upon one of her pockets and pressed her further on: “Come on, tell me!” Nia was smiling brightly and shook the other woman impatiently. Okay, maybe she was a little bit pushy.

Mòrag eyed her carefully.  
Well, she had wanted to ask Nia today anyway… And Nia was obviously in a great mood, beaming at her and waiting for an answer. “Very well,” she replied. Nia let go of her and Mòrag pulled something out of her pocket.  
“I… picked this up from the jeweller,” she admitted and presented Nia with a slender jewellery box.

Mòrag opened it for her and Nia’s golden eyes went wide. It was a beautifully crafted golden necklace that held a forest green gemstone.  
“I-is that…?” Carefully, she lifted the necklace by its chain and brought it close to her eyes to examine the gem. “W-wait a sec, I need to check somethin’…!”

Nia walked around the bridge and squatted by the pond’s shore to dip the gemstone into the water. When she looked at it again, she saw that the pattern of a leaf had appeared inside the stone. Yes, this was undoubtedly a greenmarine, one of the rarest and most beloved stones in all of Gormott and most importantly –!

Nia blushed furiously. N-no way…  
This was just another of Mòrag’s gifts… They had gotten into the habit of surprising each other with little gifts throughout their relationship. It is how they had started and it brought them joy to see what the other tried to come up with in order to outdo the previous present. The monetary value was not the important thing though, but the thought and creativity behind it. Which meant for this one…

She gulped and rose from the ground again.

“It’s beautiful…” she told Mòrag when she was standing in front of her again. “But, uh…” The blush on her cheeks deepened. “You probably didn’t know when you bought this, but…” There was a nervous sideglance. “The greenmarine is a very popular… engagement gift in Gormott.”

Mòrag halted for a moment, then she took the necklace from Nia’s hands and gently put it around the Gormotti’s neck. “I… I know. I grew up here after all…” she confessed, while she concentrated very hard on fastening the piece of jewellery properly, and her cheeks reddened as well.

Nia’s heart skipped a beat and her ears stood up straight from the nervousness. “Mòrag, are you…?” she began when the Ardainian let go of her again.

Mòrag gulped and averted her gaze. She assumed her parade rest stance and took a deep breath. Then she looked at Nia, light brown eyes sincere and excited and _so_ adorably nervous…

“Nia…” she began, then she shook her head slightly and looked awkwardly around. They were right in the middle of town and she was in her _uniform_ … Mòrag gulped again and decided that she did not care whoever bore witness to what came next. Mòrag had not exactly planned for her proposal to go like this, but… She took another breath and got down on one knee.

Nia had her hands on her mouth now, trying to suppress whatever noise wanted to escape her at this sight.

Somewhere in the background she heard water splashing, as if something heavy fell into the pond, and the three children screamed Edgar’s name.

“Will you marry me?”

She had actually said it.

Nia almost didn’t believe her ears. She laughed and cried happy tears at the same time. “And here I thought _I_ would do you a favour today…!” she said while she hastily wiped the tears away. Then she snapped her fingers and, just like her sword usually did in battle, a jewel box materialized in her hand. She kneeled down as well, but on both knees so that she was on eye level with Mòrag, and showed her its contents.

It was a silver brooch. And it was not just any kind of brooch, no, this one was two hearts beautifully intertwined. A motive that meant only one thing in Mor Ardain…!

“This is…!” Mòrag exclaimed, completely baffled.

Nia gave her a shy grin. “Ya know, after you teased me with that wreath back then I asked Dromarch about Ardainian wedding traditions and… turns out you lot use brooches instead of flowers to get engaged.”

She fastened it on Mòrag’s collar and that happy smile grew ever so wide.

“Mòrag Ladair, I want to marry you.”

Mòrag needed a moment for the words to settle in, but as soon as they did she smiled, got down on her other knee too and pulled Nia into the tightest embrace the Gormotti had ever experienced. Nia could feel the warmth and happiness emanating from her now-fiancée and chuckled delightfully.

When Mòrag released her from her iron grip Nia was finally able to place her hands on her fiancée’s face and plant kiss after kiss on her, not caring that they were in the middle of town and that everyone had been able to clearly see the controversy that was Mor Ardain’s mighty Special Inquisitor propose to a seemingly ordinary Gormotti woman.

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere in Gormott’s outskirts, a familiar blade duo enjoyed a peaceful day off by Coolley lake’s shores.

The white tiger was lying lazily in the sun, his head resting on his paws and his eyes closed, while the elegant blue flame blade rested on his side, enjoying the sun as well.

“A peaceful day, isn’t it, Dromarch?” Brighid asked, while she examined the flowers she had collected earlier before during their stroll.

“Mh-hmm,” the tiger answered. “Indeed. I feel like there is something special in the air though…” he noted with a subtle baritone chuckle.

“Oh, is it now?” Brighid asked and she sounded amused. He could feel her sitting up properly, maybe tired from being in the same position for what had been at least an hour now.

“Why yes, my lady was so nervous about today…”

“Hm, really…” she only replied, sounding thoughtful, but Dromarch heard the entertained undertone in her voice. “Interesting, I could say the same about Lady Mòrag. But what put Nia in such a flurry, I wonder?”

Dromarch chuckled again. “Something she had been planning for quite a while now… She even asked emperor Niall for his support.”

“Oh?” Brighid raised a purple eyebrow. “I wonder if that was before or after Lady Mòrag sought her brother out…” There was a smile tugging at her lips, while her hands worked swiftly on making a little present for the white tiger…

Dromarch was smiling as well.

A warm breeze wafted towards them, which made their moment of silence even more enjoyable.

“Lady Brighid, what is it that you are working on behind my back?” he asked curiously after a long while had passed.

Brighid waited a moment before she answered, maybe she had been occupied, Dromarch couldn’t tell and he was too lazy to check.

“You see, Lady Mòrag once told me a very interesting story that happened during my absence…” Brighid began and Dromarch felt how she stroke along his back with one of her hands. He loved the warmth accompanied by her touches. “And I feel like today is a very appropriate day for a little callback.”

This got the tiger’s attention and he opened his eyes. He turned his head, just when Brighid’s hand let go of him again, and suddenly she placed a flower crown between his ears. His blue eyes blinked once, which was the amount of time he needed to process the meaning behind this gesture. Then he smiled his gentlemanly smile.

“It is endearing to see how driver and blade coordinated their actions for today…” he noted and his voice may have sounded a bit embarrassed.

“Whatever do you mean? I just thought it suited you…” Brighid replied and ran her hand along his head.

“Is that so? Then please, let me enlighten you…” Dromarch said and his tail began to move back and forth amusedly. “While not traditional in Mor Ardain, in Gormott there used to be a special kind of engagement tradition which involved weaving a certain flower into a wreath. A certain flower we picked up during our stroll today…”

“Oh really? I wouldn’t know about this, since I am not familiar with botany…” She stopped mid-motion and stroked the tiger beneath his chin, not bothering to hide her tell-tale smile. She knew that Dromarch was well aware of the fact that one of her past incarnations used to be very knowledgeable with flowers.

She felt a chuckle and a purr inside his throat. “Either way, I am glad you took the initiative, Lady Brighid. I fear my efforts wouldn’t have amounted to much, if I had attempted such a thing.”

She was clearly amused now. “Because of your lack of thumbs?”

Dromarch chuckled once more. “I fear the flowers would have burst into flame the second I would have placed them on your head,” he elaborated.

This drew a little laugh out of the flame blade’s mouth, a noise as sweet as it was rare. “I think you look very dashing with it…” she commented and leaned closer to give the gentleman tiger a peck on the cheek.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Started with the offer of buying a bear carving and ended with a proposal :D
> 
> For those non-native speakers out there: Rapprochement means, and I quote " the development of greater understanding and friendship between two countries or groups after they have been unfriendly". Was looking how to name that chapter and this seemed to pretty much sum up everything nicely, considering that Mòrag wanted to "improve the relationship between Gormott and Mor Ardain" in the first chapter XD
> 
> Whenever I write Mòrag/Nia their blades are always off doing their own thing... You gotta admit they are cute together and I feel they fit very well personality wise~ Also, Ikasury inspired me to write this part when she made a comment about Domarch not having thumbs to make a wreath when she read the scene were Mòrag bullshited Nia with making up this tradition XD  
> Speaking of traditions: The brooch Nia gives to Mòrag was inspired by the Scottish Luckenbooths~ I knew Mòrag would propose with a necklace and thought it would be nice if Nia also used sth else than a ring.
> 
> That fic was certainly quite a ride~  
> Again, I have a thesis to hand in soon and my motivation sinks with each day while my anxiety rises >.>   
> So, support your local fanfic author by leaving a nice comment? :D  
> If any, I'd just like to know which chapter/scene you enjoyed the most, always curious about that, escpecially the longer a story is~


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